So where did Aussie viewers go to get all their US election coverage?
Firstly it’s worth acknowledging that with some telecasts stretching to five hours, the average figure will be necessarily modest, especially during the daytime.
At this stage we also only have preliminary figures, which factors in schedules as they were initially planned. In other words, they don’t yet account for the fact that candidate speeches were after 4pm AEDST, when Seven and Nine had planned to return to normal schedules.
ABC did in fact return to normal programming on cue at 3pm, missing some crucial moments until it picked up the ball again at 5:30pm AEDST.
Based on those factors here’s how the figures stacked up:
Seven News at 4:30pm 451,000 (4:30pm in all states)
US Election Special (ABC 5:30pm AEDST) 192,000 (Syd / Mel / Ade / Per)
Seven News Special: America Decides live 183,000
Nine Afternoon News 182,000 (Syd / Mel / Ade / Per)
Nine News Special: US Election live 157,000
America Decides: Presidential Election Result Live (SBS) 82,000
ABC News Special: Election Coverage live 81,000 (Syd / Mel only)
US Election Special (ABC 5:30pm) 31,000 (Bris)
Other news figures are available at Week 45.
71 million watched it in the USA – The highest rated election night since 1980. I watched CNN for most the day but enjoyed 9′s direct feed from ABC when CNN went to ads. Breakdown in the USA for ratings [including 25-54 year old bracket]
Broadcast Networks
ABC: 13.1 million total viewers, 6.1 million A25-54
NBC: 12.0 million total viewers, 5.8 million A25-54
CBS: 7.8 million total viewers, 3.5 million A25-54
Cable Networks
CNN: 12.3 million total viewers, 5.8 million A25-54
FNC: 9.0 million total viewers, 3.9 million A25-54
MSNBC: 5.9 million total viewers, 2.7 million A25-54
Other
Fox: 5.1 million total viewers
Univision: 4.1 million total viewers
Telemundo:0.8 million total viewers
source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/05/election-night-2008-ratin_n_141633.html
I thought the hologram was a bit lame though on CNN…….
7 probably won because they had adds for it every few minutes during the melbourne cup. they made it sound like it was only on 7 or there was some exclusiveness
which it obviously wasn’t
I got home from work early on Wednesday and watched Fox News Channel from 3:00 pm AEDT through to 7:00 pm and their coverage was absolutely brillant. Go ahead and call me a right wing nut job if you wish but I always go to Fox News for the big American stories and this year I watched both conventions, the three presidental debates and the vice presidental debate hosted by Brit Hume and his panel. With panelist, reporters and correspondents like Fred Barnes, Morton Kondracke, Bill Kristol, Megyn Kelly, Chris Wallace, Major Garrett, Carl Cameron and the ever insightful Charles Krauthammer why would you get your American political news anywhere else.
Have to agree Nine had the best coverage as well (Not usual that i agree that Nine was best at something!) but SBS were solid as well.
What was with ABC (Australia) and half of the CNN ticker cut off?
Nine did have the best coverage by far. I feel sorry that the ratings do not back this statment up. Keep at it Nine.
Nine was good – just to see the resurrection of self-confessed liar Graham Richardson. (He admitted he was in his political autobiography “Whatever It Takes)
I loved the BBC World News coverage. Especially the incredibly bizarre interview with Gore Vidal, who was either very “tired and emotional” or has something wrong with his medication.
Had to watch the net for results, but would have watched on 9.
I don’t know why Australia is making a big deal out of this. It’s not like we get to vote.
I’m with you on that Alex – Nine’s coverage was by far the best of all FTA!
CNN’s coverage was worth it just for the Star Trek style holograms they used.
I watched Seven and CNN. Seven was showing CNN coverage as well as NBC i think, or ABC, cant remember. But towards the end and for President Obama’s speech, i watched CNN.
Craig H: US election figures
I’m surprised Nine’s coverage didn’t do any better – they had the best by far in my opinion.
not that id try and tell you what to put on your site (which you do a great job of btw) but id be interested to see a write up of the US TV audiences for the election, I saw some brief into somewhere indicating ABC had the most viewers, followed by CNN but thats about all ive seen..keep up the great work
Daniel if they sent them I’d use them. Only weekly figures are added each Monday to the weekly threads….
What about the pay tv ratings? I watched CNN all day and I saw that some of the fta channels were also showing CNN.
The BBC had the best coverage on BBC World News.