The politicians who received more votes than their opponents weren't the only winners on Election Night.
Fox News's dominance on Election Night was overwhelming. If the competition between Fox, CNN, and MSNBC had instead been an electoral contest, they would have called it 30 seconds after the polls closed.
The graphic that follows illustrates just how big Fox's gains were in 2010 compared to 2006, after a mediocre 2006 compared to 2002:
(Sources: Media Bistro -- 2010, 2006)
Fox had over 60% of the total cable news Election Night audience, and not far from 60% of the 25-54 demographic. CNN's audience share dropped almost 16 percentage points (over 13 points in the 25-54 demo), while MSNBC's share dropped by over 7 points (9.5 points in the demo).
It looks like lots of viewers preferred their election coverage fair and balanced. After some of the Election Night shenanigans reported at NewsBusters relating to MSNBC, I can't say I blame them.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
