WGN-Ch. 9 and WLS-Ch. 7 claimed victory during prime time reporting of Tuesday’s local and national elections between 9 and 11 p.m., when networks and local stations were at their peak coverage time.
Channel 9 had a 9.9 rating, or 332,000 local households, from 9 to 10 p.m. There are 3.3 million TV households in the Chicago area; each rating point represents 33,513 TV households.
Channel 9 bested coverage of national races on ABC, CBS and NBC that were carried on the owned-and-operated stations at the time, as well as local challenges carried on WFLD-Ch. 32, which had a 6.5 rating.
At 10 p.m., when network news shows gave way to their local counterparts, Channel 7 had a 12.0 rating, while WMAQ-Ch. 5 had a 7.0 rating. Channel 9 tied with Channel 5 during the hour. WBBM-Ch. 2 posted a 2.8 rating.
Among cable news networks, Fox News Channel was seen by 2.30 million viewers from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. CNN followed with 1.96 million viewers, and MSNBC had 807,000 viewers. Final national TV numbers for Tuesday were delayed until Thursday.