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[11/05/08 - 02:16 PM]
ABC News Is Most-Watched Broadcast Network During Primetime on Election Night
ABC spins the numbers for Tuesday, November 4.
[via press release from ABC]

ABC NEWS IS MOST-WATCHED BROADCAST NETWORK DURING PRIMETIME ON ELECTION NIGHT

13.14 Million Viewers Tune in to "Vote 2008" Anchored by Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos

ABC is #1 Among Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49

ABCNEWS.com Sets New Record Traffic High on Election Day

ABC News was the most-watched broadcast network on Election Night, placing first among Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49. Anchored by Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, "Vote 2008" averaged 13.14 million Total Viewers, a 4.9 among Adults 25-54 and a 4.4. among Adults 18-49 during primetime (8:00-11:00 p.m.).

ABC's coverage outperformed second-place NBC News by 1.12 million Total Viewers. This is ABC's first Presidential Election Night victory since 1996. NBC won in 2000 and 2004.

Compared to 2004, ABC was up in all key categories, 9% among Total Viewers, 2% among Adults 25-54 and 7% among Adults 18-49. NBC was down 18% among Total Viewers, 19% among Adults 25-54 and 18% among Adults 18-49 compared to 2004. CBS was down 14% among Total Viewers, 15% among Adults 25-54 and 25% among Adults 18-49.

ABC News broadcast comprehensive coverage of the Presidential election over the past 22 months. Among the highlights: George Stephanopoulos moderated the only Sunday morning Presidential debates in Iowa in 2007, and Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos moderated the first ever back-to-back primetime Presidential debates in New Hampshire in January 2008. ABC News devoted all of its primetime to Super Tuesday coverage on February 5, and its unduplicated reach for the night was 30,634,100 Total Viewers. ABC's Democratic candidates' debate in Philadelphia on the eve of the primary there was the most-watched primary debate of the election cycle. In September, ABC News teamed up with USA Today to cover all 50 states in the 50 days leading up to the election. Charles Gibson was the first to interview Gov. Sarah Palin after she was named John McCain's running mate. ABC News was the most-watched net for two of the Presidential debates and for the Vice Presidential debate.

ABCNEWS.com set a new record traffic high on Election Day, with audience numbers exploding almost 50% higher than the previous record. The night's traffic also surpassed its previous record set on a key political evening -- Super Tuesday -- in page views by more than 131%. The site's Election Day traffic also marked a remarkable increase of more than 150 % over the average daily traffic during the past 30 weekdays.

ABCNEWS.com's mobile WAP numbers were equally impressive, garnering an increase of 404% in page views and an increase of 1,576% in uniques over average daily numbers.

ABCNEWS.com featured four live streams and behind-the-scenes video on Election Night. The live streams included ABC News NOW -- ABC's digital channel -- McCain Election Night Headquarters, Obama Election Night Headquarters, and a roving stream that accessed reports from ABC News reporters in battleground states.

ABC News NOW's coverage, co-hosted by Sam Donaldson and Rick Klein, author of "The Note," was streamed live on ABCNEWS.com, as well as on ABCNEWSNOW.com and available on ESPN.com. ABC News NOW partnered with Yahoo! to be the exclusive provider of live streaming video on Election Night, available on their homepage at Yahoo.com. The coverage was also broadcast on MTVu.

Source: Nielsen Live + Same Day





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