CNN Earns Election Night Ratings Win

Cabler tops FNC's audience with 8.8 million viewers

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/7/2012 2:22:51 PM

CNN was the most-watched cable news network on Election Night, topping second-place Fox News Channel, which had dominated the debate nights, by 128,000 viewers.

According to Nielsen fast national ratings data, CNN averaged 8.836 million total viewers from 7 p.m.-2 a.m. ET while Fox News was close behind with 8.708 million viewers from when the polls first closed through both President Obama's and Mitt Romney's speeches.

MSNBC was a distant third, drawing 4.604 million total viewers. CNN topped the advertiser-coveted adults 25-54 demo by a wider margin, averaging 4.387 million viewers to FNC's 3.494 million and MSNBC's 2.021 million.

CNN also reported record traffic to its CNN.com website on Nov. 6.