Super Tuesday Coverage Draws 11.4 Million To Major Cable And Broadcast Networks

This cycle’s Super Tuesday lacked suspense — and that showed in the viewership numbers.

About 11.4 million viewers tuned into coverage during the peak hour of 10 p.m. ET, when the thre major broadcast networks joined with the three major cable networks with live coverage, according to early numbers from Nielsen. That’s far less than the nearly 19 million who tuned in across those networks during the last cycle, 2020.

But Super Tuesday 2020 featured the surprise showing of Joe Biden against Bernie Sanders, in a race that was still undoubtedly competitive. By contrast, there were few surprises in this year’s results, as Donald Trump and Biden dominated their respective contests. Nikki Haley, Trump’s last remaining rival for the nomination, dropped out earlier today, as did Dean Phillips, who had challenged Biden.

This year, Fox News led with 3.51 million viewers in the 10 p.m. ET hour, followed by MSNBC with 1.96 million, ABC with 1.88 million, NBC with 1.68 million, CBS with 1.46 million and CNN with 938,000.

In the 25-54 demo, Fox News topped with 503,000, followed by NBC with 396,000, ABC with 343,000, CNN with 277,000 and MSNBC with 223,000.

In primetime, Fox News led with 3.24 million, followed by MSNBC with 1.9 million and CNN with 900,000. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News led with 455,000, followed by CNN and MSNBC with 251,000 each.

The viewership figures are from Nielsen via Fox News.

The broadcast networks featured coverage during the 10 p.m. hour, leaving it to their streaming services to provide results throughout the evening. NBC News Now said it was their strongest primary day viewership on record, but the network does not provide underlying figures.