Fox News delivers 4.3M viewers with coverage of bungled Iowa caucuses

Fox News saw an average of 4.3 million total viewers in prime time on Monday night during its coverage of the botched Iowa caucuses, topping MSNBC’s 2.6 million and CNN’s 1.8 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Coverage was hampered across the board by delayed results of the first voting contest of the 2020 presidential election season, with the first wave of tallies not coming in until 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday. 

The delays in vote totals left the major cable networks, which were all showing wall-to-wall live coverage out of Iowa, scrambling in the early morning hours on Tuesday with little to report.

In the 25- to 54-year-old demographic sought by advertisers, Fox News was first with 793,000 viewers, followed by CNN’s 702,000 and MSNBC’s 612,000.

February will be an exceptionally busy month in the broadcast news arena, which has been laser-focused on Washington politics throughout President Trump’s term.

On Tuesday night, Trump will deliver his third State of the Union address, followed by a final Senate impeachment vote on Wednesday that is expected to result in his acquittal.

The Democratic campaigns — and resources from countless news organizations — will be heading north to New Hampshire for the state’s presidential primary next Tuesday. 

Later in the month, the scene will shift to Nevada for its caucuses on Feb. 22 and to the South Carolina primary on Feb. 29.