Fox News Channel draws more than 10 million viewers on election night as Trump's historic victory unfolded

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Trump returns to the White House, elected 47th president, Fox News projects

The Fox News Decision Desk projects former President Trump will win the 2024 presidential election with victory in Wisconsin.

Fox News Channel drew the biggest television audience on election night, earning more than 10 million viewers as President-elect Trump's historic victory unfolded.

Fox News Channel averaged a whopping 10.3 million total viewers during its "Democracy 2024" primetime coverage, including 3.1 million in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demo, according to data from Nielsen Media research. 

Additionally, FOX Broadcasting Network earned an average of 2 million viewers and FOX Business Network garnered 897,000, totaling roughly 13.6 million viewers across all FOX television platforms. 

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Fox News' Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier led "Democracy 2024" coverage of the historic presidential race.? (FOX News Media)

"FOX News dominated every aspect of this historic election cycle, from primary debates to town halls to being the only network to conduct interviews with all four candidates in both parties in a one-week span as Bret Baier helmed the most buzzed about interview of the race," FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement. 

"I am extremely proud of our team’s commitment to delivering the top reporting and analysis to the largest and most politically diverse audience in news and once again beating every broadcast and cable network across the board."

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Trailing behind in second place was MSNBC with 6 million total primetime viewers, followed by ABC with 5.9 million viewers, NBC with 5.5 million viewers, CNN with 5.1 million viewers, CBS with 3.6 million viewers and NewsNation with 265,000 viewers. 

Fox News Channel maintained its dominance early Wednesday morning, maintaining over 7.4 million viewers during the 1 a.m. ET hour when the Fox News Decision Desk called Pennsylvania for Trump, giving him the 270 Electoral College votes needed to become president again. Fox News' viewership bested CNN and MSNBC combined.

Former President Donald Trump stands onstage with former first lady Melania Trump, right, as Lara Trump looks on at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

During the 3 a.m. ET timeslot, after Trump wrapped up his victory speech, Fox News Channel attracted a strong 4.7 million total viewers with 1.2 million in the key demo, while MSNBC averaged just 2.6 million viewers with only 633,000 in the key demo, and CNN reached only 2.1 million viewers with 808,000 in the key demo. 

This marks the second election in a row in which Fox News Channel topped all cable and broadcast networks. 

Fox News Channel was the most watched cable news network in every swing state, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, according to Nielsen Media Research. 

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Fox News Channel was the only network to land interviews with both presidential and vice presidential candidates in a single week, most notably "Special Report" anchor Bret Baier’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, which drew a staggering 9.2 million total viewers. (Fox News Channel)

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More independents and Democrats tuned in to Fox News' "Democracy 2024" than any other network, according to Nielsen MRI Fusion data. A recent YouGov study found that more independents get their news from Fox News than other news outlets. 

FOX News Media had a strong performance in the digital space. FOX News Digital collected 47.2 million livestream views between 6 p.m.-3 a.m. ET. FOX News Digital saw an average minute audience of 386,000, which includes FOX Nation. 

Fox News also dominated on social media compared to its news competitors, collecting 2.9 social interactions across Facebook, Instagram and X, according to Emplifi. Additionally, the Fox News mobile app climbed to the No. 3 spot among the free apps in the App Store.