Go to main content

3.8 Million Canadians Tuned In To CBC News’ Live TV Coverage Of The U.S. Election, With Over 3 Million Unique Visitors

CBC was the number-one Canadian destination for live news coverage and results for the historic U.S. presidential election on Tuesday, November 5, keeping audiences in Canada up to date on the tightly contested race and offering them a homegrown perspective on the events unfolding south of the border. Viewers across the country tuned in to CBC and CBC News Network for U.S. election coverage more than any other English-language Canadian network. 

Beginning at 8 p.m. ET on November 5 and airing late into the night, 3.8 million viewers tuned in for the CBC NEWS LIVE SPECIAL: AMERICA VOTES, led by chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault on CBC and CBC News Network, which garnered a combined average audience of 639,000 viewers. CBC and CBC News Network’s audiences peaked at 10:12 p.m. ET with an average minute audience of 957,000, when correspondent Richard Madan was reporting from Philadelphia on the importance of Pennsylvania to Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. 

CBC also attracted significant digital audiences the evening of November 5, with more than 3 million combined unique visitors to cbcnews.ca and the CBC News App, and the Results Tracker alone drew more than 4 million page views as of 9 a.m. ET on November 6. The CBC News YouTube channel’s live stream of the AMERICA VOTES special received 3.6 million views, an increase of 500 per cent compared to views for CBC News’ 2020 U.S. election coverage, and on CBC Gem, time spent streaming was up 29 per cent over 2020 election coverage. 

Hosted by Your World Tonight’s Susan Bonner and The Sunday Magazine’s Piya Chattopadhyay, CBC Radio coverage of the U.S. election reached 840,000 listeners and garnered an average minute audience of 112,000. Overall on November 5, audiences in Canada consumed close to 5 million hours of AMERICA VOTES coverage across CBC, CBC News Network and digital platforms including CBC Gem, cbcnews.ca, the CBC News App, CBC News streaming channels, CBC Listen and the CBC News YouTube channel

Sources: Numeris TV Meter, Total Canada, CBC TV & CBC News Network, Nov. 5, 2024 vs. Nov. 3, 2020, P2+, TotMins(000,000) Converted to Hours, generated by InStarTV,  Numeris Radio Meter, Nov 5, 2024, Radio One, Tues 8p-2a ET (adjustments made for time zones), AMA generated by InstarRadio (UNCONFIRMED) CBC Gem: Adobe Analytics, CBC Production, OTT Segment, Videos contains “america-votes” and “live” or CBC regional or CBC NN streams,, 11/05/24 - 11/06/24 (10am) , Metric: Content Time Spent, Adobe Analytics, Nov 5 & 6, 2024 (through 9am EST). YouTube: Content Manager Dashboard, LIVE views by hour “Realtime Views”: Nov 5 at 5PM - Nov 6 at 6am (13 hr stream). Data is unconfirmed. 

- 30 -

About CBC/Radio-Canada

CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster. Through our mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, we play a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As Canada’s trusted news source, we offer a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs and world affairs. Our distinctively homegrown entertainment programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages. We also deliver content in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog, as well as both official languages, through Radio Canada International (RCI). We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world.

For media inquiries, please contact:

Tanya Koivusalo, CBC PR

tanya.koivusalo@cbc.ca 

Discover

March 5th at 11:00

CBC News Network and ICI RDI are now available as add-on subscriptions through Prime Video in Canada

CBC/Radio-Canada today announced that the national public broadcaster’s all-news channels, CBC News Network and ICI RDI, are now available on Prime Video as add-on subscriptions for $4.99/month each, with a 7-day free trial. 
February 26th at 11:00

3 in 4 Canadians say CBC/Radio-Canada’s Olympic Winter Games coverage contributed to shared sense of national identity

In a survey measuring Canadians’ perceptions of CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, three quarters of respondents agreed (6–10 on a 10-point scale) that Canada’s Olympic Network provided high-quality coverage of the Games and that the coverage contributed to a shared sense of identity among Canadians.
February 25th at 11:30

Applications are open for CBC New Indigenous Voices 2026

Applications are now open for the 2026 edition of CBC New Indigenous Voices, presented by the National Screen Institute. This full-time, 14-week training program supports the next generation of Indigenous storytellers working in film, television and digital media.
February 7th at 18:25

16 million viewers in Canada tune in for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 Opening Ceremony

Sixteen million viewers in Canada tuned in to CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Opening Ceremony on CBC and Radio-Canada networks and broadcast partners TSN, Sportsnet and RDS, with an additional 1.1 million streams on CBC/Radio-Canada’s digital platforms. 
February 2nd at 10:30

CBC/Radio-Canada and public libraries teaming up to bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games to communities across Canada

CBC/Radio-Canada, Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic Network, today announced that it is teaming up with public library systems to bring the excitement of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games into local libraries across the country.