• by Wayne Friedman , January 4, 2012

No surprise concerning the first key cable news network Presidential battle: Fox News was a big winner.

All primetime coverage for the Republican Iowa Caucus' had Fox getting 2.63 million viewers, between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. That was more than double CNN and MSNBC, who pulled in 1.31 million and 1.20 million viewers respectively.

Fox also distanced CNN and MSNBC among key 25-54 viewers: Fox had 637,000; CNN, 390,000; and MSNBC, 259,000. Overall Fox was up 30% in viewerhip on the night versus the last time for the Iowa Caucus' four years ago. MSNBC was virtually flat; and CNN was down.