Washington, United States, November 6: ABC news topped the ratings Tuesday night with their coverage of the Presidential race garnering an average of 9.3 rating/13 share.
According to the data obtained by Nielsen Media Research, 13.1 million viewers tuned in to ABC during their prime-time hours which is between 8 to 11 p.m. CNN trailed ABC with 12.3 million viewers followed by NBC with 12 million viewers.
Other broadcast and cable networks also showed an increase in their audience during the election night. The number of viewers for other networks is: Fox with 9 million, CBS with 7.8 million, MSNBC with 5.9 million, Fox broadcast network with 5 million and Univision with 4.1 million.
David Westin, president of ABC News said that they made an aggressive move to cover the 2008 campaign which started with their sponsorship of prime-time debates in January. He said that the network’s reporter went to 50 states in only 50 days in order to cover politics.
Westin stated that "the presidential election is about the people who are voting, about their hopes and fears. Too often the focus is on the calendar and the horse race."
While ABC led in the prime-time ratings, CNN topped ratings after 12:30 a.m. Most viewers tuned in to CNN to watch John McCain’s concession speech and the 44th U.S. president, Barack Obama make his victory appearance in Chicago.
Nielsen Media Research measured viewership in 14 broadcast and cable networks. They reported that 71.4 million viewers turned on their television Tuesday night to watch the first African-American to be elected president of the United States. The data they obtained showed that 47 million homes followed the election news – the most in U.S. TV history.
It was not only in television where an increase in ratings was seen. Websites also broke records and showed an increase in traffic, Tuesday. CNN.com had 30 million visitors which is more than twice its previous one-day record. The “Decision ’08 Dashboard” of MSNBC.com had 107 million page views during the Election Day. Even Yahoo! News got an increase in traffic with their page views up by 80 percent compared to the 2004 campaign.
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