Election Night remains one of television’s biggest draws, but how do news networks draw eyeballs to their specific coverage when the linear audience continues to dwindle?
An estimated 25.4 million people watched primetime coverage of the 2022 midterms across 13 networks, according to Nielsen data, down from 36.1 million across 11 networks in 2018. The figures don’t capture all digital viewing, but they underscore the challenge facing networks as audiences fragment.
And yet, the 2026 midterms have the potential to be a major media moment.
With talk of a “blue wave,” wide discontentment with President Trump’s policies and low approval ratings and several high-profile contentious races, the networks have plenty of reasons to anticipate heightened interest in Tuesday’s results — even if that doesn’t necessarily translate to higher television ratings.
NBC News is preparing 13 hours of continuous broadcast coverage for the Nov. 3 midterms. CBS News is launching a separate streaming show without reducing resources for its television broadcast. Fox News is developing technology that it will use long after the election, while MS NOW is preparing for its first midterms with a newsroom it built over the past year.
The investment underscores the bind that news networks find themselves in as they balance the need to go all-in on election night coverage and stay competitive despite overall declining ratings and a fragmented audience. The result is networks using the same reporters, production crews and technology across television, streaming, websites and apps. But additional programming and digital products carry expenses of their own, while streaming viewers don’t necessarily generate the same advertising and distribution revenue as traditional television audiences, complicating their financial calculus.
Interviews with executives at eight news networks reveal an industry trying to spread production costs across more platforms while finding new ways to turn Election Night attention into higher revenue. With comparable budgets largely undisclosed, it’s difficult to establish whether the networks are spending less or simply producing more.
Jon Klein, the former president of CNN U.S., said the investment has never been limited to one night’s ratings.
During his tenure, CNN developed a multiyear strategy called “Four Years to Victory,” directing resources toward political reporting, programming and technology ahead of the 2008 presidential election.
“Election nights are the news equivalent of the Super Bowl,” Klein told TheWrap.
Unlike the NFL championship, however, no network holds exclusive rights. Each must establish its political coverage well in advance to give viewers a reason to choose it over the competition, particularly as so many alternatives on both sides of the political spectrum — from Newsmax on the right to Crooked Media podcasts on the left — have sprung up over the last few years.
Making the investment last
At Fox News, the strategy starts with technology designed to remain useful after Election Night.
The network is investing in augmented reality, election graphics and production systems that can serve its television, streaming and digital operations. More than 20 Fox News and Fox Business correspondents are expected to report from the field.
“The greatest difference is how much more integrated the whole operation has become,” Doug Rohrbeck, Fox News Media’s executive vice president of Washington news and politics, told TheWrap.
Fox One, the company’s direct-to-consumer service, is introducing an interactive election experience combining live programming, local results and election analysis. Its underlying data platform is intended to support other news and sports programming.
“There’s an investment upfront, but these aren’t tools we’re building for one night,” Rohrbeck said. “We’ll be able to keep using them and build on them going forward.”
NBC News is applying that approach to its reporting and production teams.
“This is the most extensive midterm election coverage I’ve ever been a part of,” Catherine Kim, NBC News’ executive vice president of editorial and content, told TheWrap.
NBC will begin its 13-hour broadcast at 5 p.m. ET, with most affiliates joining at 6:30 p.m. The network will also provide coverage through NBC News NOW, Peacock and digital platforms, including a dedicated Steve Kornacki livestream and mobile-first programming.
“The teams are far more integrated across NBC News,” Kim said.
That approach builds on existing operations. As TheWrap previously reported, NBC has used its bureaus and crews to support battleground-state reporting for both “NBC Nightly News” and its streaming program “Top Story.”
The collaboration extends to Noticias Telemundo, which is drawing on NBC News’ election infrastructure while developing its own Spanish-language coverage.
Both newsrooms are coordinating through NBC’s Decision Desk, with election graphics developed by NBC News and adapted into Spanish by Noticias Telemundo, according to Gemma Garcia, the Spanish-language network’s executive vice president of news.
Telemundo is also introducing an Election Night set that will be 80% virtual, using augmented and virtual reality to explain congressional results and provide context on economic and immigration issues. Original digital and social coverage will begin three and a half hours before its television special.
ABC News is also consolidating production resources, combining its Special Events and ABC News Live teams to distribute one Election Night program across ABC, Disney+, Hulu and ABC News Live.
Seni Tienabeso, vice president of ABC News Live and Specialized Units, said the combined operation utilizes personnel from both teams. ABC plans to deploy 13 anchors, correspondents and reporters across 11 states and introduce additional election analysis through its new Voter Poll.
CBS News, meanwhile, is adding streaming coverage without pulling resources from its traditional broadcast.
The midterms will be the first major national election under editor in chief Bari Weiss, who has spent the past year reshaping CBS News amid scrutiny of her editorial decisions. The network is launching “The Nerd Show,” a separate, data-focused streaming production hosted by Anthony Salvanto and Caitlin Huey-Burns, alongside its regular Election Night broadcast.
“That doesn’t mean the linear broadcast is getting fewer resources — in fact, the opposite is true,” David Reiter, CBS News’ senior vice president of special events, special projects and CBS News 24/7, told TheWrap.
CBS is also working with VoteHub on election maps and forecasting models and incorporating data from Kalshi, its official prediction-market sponsor. CBS hasn’t disclosed the sponsorship’s financial terms or its overall election-production budget.
Klein said producing coverage for multiple platforms can still reduce costs compared with operating each one separately.
“Definitely saves money, by amortizing sunk costs across platforms,” he said. “You’re going to spend producing something for those platforms, better to spread the cost of people and travel across more outlets.”
The cost of independence
MS NOW, meanwhile, has made a different bet: building its own newsgathering operation rather than relying on NBC News. The Versant-owned network, which separated from NBC at the beginning of the year, has hired more than 200 journalists over the past year as part of that expansion.
Rather than pay NBC News a reported $60 million annually for newsgathering services, MS NOW established newsrooms in Washington and New York, according to the Los Angeles Times.
For Election Night, MS NOW plans to deploy more than a dozen reporters across 10 states.
The network hasn’t disclosed what its independent operation costs, so the $60 million figure doesn’t establish that it’s saving money. The investment does give MS NOW direct control over its reporting resources.
And unlike election graphics or production software, a newsroom carries recurring staffing and infrastructure expenses. Its financial value depends on the reporting it produces throughout the year, not just the audience it draws on Nov. 3.
Turning Election Night viewers into customers
The other side of the business equation is what networks get back from audiences who follow their election coverage.
CNN is using the midterms to showcase its All Access subscription service alongside interactive election tools. Sightline lets users explore election results and data surrounding key Senate and gubernatorial races, while a digital version of the Magic Wall lets them examine results down to the county level. Both will be available through CNN’s website and app, with additional features for subscribers.
“Audiences consume election news in a multitude of ways, and we’re evolving to meet them where they are,” Abigail Crutchfield, CNN’s senior vice president of Washington and special election coverage, told TheWrap.
An Election Night edition of “CNN Office Hours” will stream free on YouTube and TikTok, while subscribers receive exclusive opportunities to participate and ask questions.
MS NOW is pursuing a similar approach, offering a free Election Night livestream while allowing paying members to submit questions. The strategy builds on the network’s broader effort to turn cable news loyalty into recurring subscription revenue.
Both networks are using free coverage to introduce viewers to paid services that promise a continuing relationship with their journalists. Neither has disclosed how many subscriptions it expects Election Night to generate.
NewsNation is making a different bet on audience loyalty.
The Nexstar-owned network will draw on reporting from its parent’s more than 200 local television stations and sister outlet The Hill, while using existing studios and mobile reporting technology to support its coverage.
“For us, success isn’t just about getting viewers to watch one night — it’s about giving them a reason to make NewsNation a regular part of their television diet and how they stay informed,” Cherie Grzech, president and managing editor of news and politics at NewsNation and The Hill, told TheWrap.
For a network still building its audience after debuting in the fall of 2020, the potential value lies in attracting viewers who might return after the election, strengthening its longer-term advertising and distribution business.
The return on Election Night
Klein said election coverage remains central to network economics despite the growing fragmentation of audiences.
“Political coverage is a crucial driver of news networks’ identities, audience engagement, and value proposition to sponsors,” he said.
He also noted that viewers often follow major live events on television while checking their phones. “Election Night is an opportunity to win both screens,” Klein said.
For networks investing in increasingly elaborate election operations, the opportunity is to turn a major news event into a more enduring business advantage. The question isn’t how many platforms they can cover on Nov. 3, but how much of the audience — and the revenue it might bring — they can hold onto afterward.
The post How News Networks Are Gearing Up for a Wild Midterm Election Night appeared first on TheWrap.
