Broadcast Took 48% of Election Night News Viewing, Madhive Finds

Broadcast networks and local affiliates captured 48% of all US midterms election news viewing on the night of November 3, according to a Madhive Maverick AI report, almost doubling their 29% share on a regular Tuesday and displacing cable news as the dominant destination for election results.

The analysis, based on Madhive's smart-TV panel tracking more than 3.5 million televisions active in primetime, measured consumption across TVs, connected devices and streaming platforms. By 10 pm ET, more than half of all TVs in use were tuned to news — four times the level of a usual Tuesday evening. Between 8 pm and midnight ET, news accounted for half of total TV viewing, against one in seven on an average Tuesday.

Cable news took 41% of primetime news viewing, down from 55% on a normal Tuesday. Streaming news fell to 11%, a 16% decline against its usual share. Madhive defined primetime for election night as 7 pm to midnight.

Among broadcasters, NBC News led the field, averaging 6.8 million viewers during its primetime broadcasts.

What does this change for broadcasters?

For an industry that has watched audiences migrate to streaming, the numbers show broadcast's reach advantage on nights of national consequence. Big-event coverage still pulls mass simultaneous audiences to linear channels, particularly local affiliates with state-level results. Spanish-language TV underlined the point: its share nearly doubled to 7.6% of the growth, and it accounted for 25% of all news minutes viewed in California.

State-level data reinforced the local pull. Texas topped the interest rankings, with 63 out of 100 TVs in use tuned to election news in primetime; 43 per 100 reached news via phones or computers, and 26 per 100 via streaming. Iowa recorded the largest jump, with primetime news viewing reaching 54 in 100 TVs in use — 3.5 times its normal Tuesday audience. Maine viewers stayed up latest: by 12:30 am Wednesday, half of all TVs were still on, five times the normal rate.

Digital activity surged in parallel. Between 7 pm and midnight, 43 in 100 active household internet connections visited a news site or app on a phone or computer, nearly double the 24 in 100 recorded the prior week.

How the figures were built

Madhive's TV numbers came from its smart-TV panel of more than 3.5 million sets active in primetime, counting viewing as 10 or more minutes spent on election or news content. Benchmarks were the Tuesdays of October 13 and October 20. Digital data was drawn from ad-supported web, app and streaming activity across more than 99 million household internet connections, excluding shared and carrier IP addresses, measured against Tuesday, October 27.

The report covers a single night, and it does not establish a durable reversal of the shift to streaming. What it does establish is that when national events demand simultaneous mass reach, broadcast and local stations still deliver it at a scale neither cable nor streaming news matched on November 3.