• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, November 4, 2020

The audience of election night news coverage of this year's election fell 20% from the 2016 presidential election, despite the fact that 2020 included both out-of-home and connected TV viewers, which were not factored into Nielsen's 2016 estimates.

An estimated 56.9 million persons two years or older tuned in to watch coverage of the 2020 U.S. presidential election during primetime on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020 on the 21networks that aired live coverage from 8pm t0 11pm (ET), according to Nielsen.

Nielsen notes that out-of-home viewing and connected TV viewing may have added an estimated 11% to the audience for televised political events.

The 2016 election night coverage was tuned into by 71.4 million persons.