Nielsen Media Research on Thursday estimated that 61.6 million tuned in to watch the election returns during primetime on Tuesday, 63 percent more than the figure for 1996.

Among the over-the-air networks, NBC led with 18.3 million viewers (on Wednesday morning, NBC's Today posed its biggest ratings ever), followed by ABC with 14.7 million, CBS with 12.9 million, and Fox with 4.2 million. Among cable networks, CNN drew 6.3 million viewers, MSNBC, 2.9 million and Fox News Channel, 2.2 million. "I can think of nothing in the history of the medium that has this kind of drama," Robert Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, told the Associated Press. "It's not just based on a true story. It is a true story."

Source: Studio Briefing