NBC led the early ratings for coverage of the 2026 midterm elections, as election-night viewing increased across major news outlets. The preliminary Nielsen figures show the network averaging 6.8 million viewers in primetime on Tuesday, including out-of-home viewing. ABC placed second with 5.1 million.
If the early numbers hold after further adjustments, NBC will be the first broadcast network to lead a federal election night in total viewers since the 2012 presidential election, which it also won. The result would mark a shift from the 2022 midterms, when NBC ranked fourth among the six most-watched news outlets.
The cable news networks were closely grouped in the preliminary figures. CNN averaged 4.159 million viewers, MS NOW had 4.156 million and Fox News recorded 4.04 million. CBS drew 2.8 million. Because the fast national ratings do not include Nielsen’s big data component, the figures may change, particularly the order among the cable channels.
Across the six networks, the combined audience was 27.05 million, already above the final total of 25.43 million for 12 outlets during the 2022 midterms. That remains below the 36.11 million viewers recorded across 11 outlets in 2018, the highest midterm election-night total of this century.
NBC also led among adults aged 25-54, averaging 2.9 million viewers in primetime. ABC had 1.7 million and CNN 1.55 million, while Fox News, CBS and MS NOW each drew between 764,000 and 800,000 viewers in the demographic.
NBC News said its live “Kornacki Cam,” focused on data analyst Steve Kornacki and his video board, generated 29 million views across platforms. The stream received 6.1 million views on YouTube and peaked at about 300,000 concurrent streams there between 8:30 and 11:30 p.m. ET.
Sources: The Hollywood Reporter.