NBC News, Steve Kornacki ride 'Blue Wave' to historic election night ratings - USA Today

The Democrats weren't the only big winners in the Nov. 3 midterm "Blue Wave" elections. So were the TV networks covering them, with NBC News and must-see elections guru Steve Kornacki leading the ratings charge.

NBC News dominated election night coverage over broadcast and cable networks, averaging more than 6.5 million viewers in primetime, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings released by NBC. It marks the first time the network has won a midterm election night in total viewers in 24 years.

ABC's coverage averaged 5.1 million total viewers, based on Nielsen data provided by the network.

The cable news race was closer than the still-undecided, tighter-than-a-tick Mississippi Senate contest, with CNN drawing 4.159 million viewers, narrowly edging MS NOW (4.156 million) and bronze medal-winner Fox News (4.04 million). The three cable networks finished within 120,000 viewers of one another.

CBS News, with anchors Tony Dokoupil and Norah O'Donnell leading election coverage, trailed the broadcast competition with 2.63 million primetime viewers. A Fox News press release took a swipe at CBS, pointing out that its "Evening News" broadcast delivered the "lowest rated midterm of the 21st century." Ouch.

In the 2022 midterms, NBC ranked fourth among the six major broadcast and cable news networks in total primetime viewers, trailing Fox News, ABC and MSNBC, according to Broadcasting+Cable. Its 3.1 million viewers were less than half its 2026 audience.

Kornacki was a 2026 election-night sensation of his own. NBC's "Kornacki Cam," a marathon livestream following the sneaker-wearing numbers whiz as he dissected election returns, ranked No. 1 among election livestreams on YouTube, according to NBC. The stream racked up a record 29 million views across platforms, including 6.1 million on YouTube.

For the first time ever, Kornacki was able to simultaneously appear in NBC News’ election broadcast coverage and his dedicated “Kornacki Cam” livestream, all from the same physical set.

Kornacki's election marathon came to an unexpectedly abrupt end after more than 10 hours. At 3:26 a.m. ET, the exhausted analyst announced he was taking a five-minute break and promised to return. He never did.

In an early morning X post on Nov. 4, Kornacki explained he had planned to be live for 13 hours but had to dip out a bit earlier than anticipated.

"I was sure 13 hours would be fine but things caught up to me in a hurry at hour 10," he wrote, adding, "Sorry for the abrupt ending!"