Earlier this week I wrote about why news media failed at the midterms where I looked at how news brands were using this seismic news moment to reinforce messaging around subscriptions. As part of this I also looked at YouTube as I was curious to spot any trends in the midterm related videos that were being posted.
So, on election night I searched via 20 different queries, recorded their performance over 24 hours and then went back two days later to see what had happened since.
In the 24 hours to 10:40 GMT on 4 November, 203 channels posted 5,173 midterm videos and drew 230 million views. By the morning of 6 November, those videos and the ones posted since had reached 739 million views across 10,617 videos.
Please note I have a slight focus here on UK because I am UK-based and the results where particularly eyebrow-raising.)
Here’s what I found.
Key numbers
5,173 midterm videos on election night, with 230M views, on 203 channels.
CNN (23.5M) and MS NOW (22.1M) led the night. They’re close enough to call it a tie.
Live streams took 46% of election-night views, averaging 90k views each.
LBC was the top UK outlet: 13th worldwide with 2.9M views. Sky News came 120th with 401k.
Creators made 7.5% of the election-night videos but took 24.8% of the views.
The same videos grew 66% in the next two days, from 230M to 381M views.
Videos posted in the two days after the night drew 358M views, almost as many as the night itself.
1. CNN and MS NOW split election night
CNN and MS NOW were miles ahead of everyone else, with more than 22 million views each. NBC News came third with 9.0M, and the top single video was NBC’s Kornacki Cam live stream, with 6.3M views.
The top 30 mix was really interesting . It has US networks, Indian broadcasters (CNN-News18 posted 203 videos in a day), Brazilian and Spanish-language channels, independent creators such as MeidasTouch and Brian Tyler Cohen, and a chat show (Jimmy Kimmel Live). LBC (13th) and the BBC (20th) are the only UK outlets in it.
2. Live won the night
As you might expect, live streams took 46% of election-night views. They averaged 90k views each, against 50k for standard videos and 16k for Shorts. Compared with each channel’s own typical midterm video, a live stream did 1.68 times as well.
The streams that won were named for the event. The BBC’s titled results stream got 1.36M views, which was 59% of everything the BBC drew on the night. It also turned up in 18 of my 20 searches.
Sky took a different route. It ran its overnight coverage on its main 24/7 “Watch Sky News live” stream, which had been running since 19 October. A titled Sky results stream only started at 09:45 GMT on 4 November, after the results were in.
3. LBC beat the BBC and Sky
LBC was the most-watched UK outlet on election night, with 2.86M views from 23 videos. That put it 13th in the world. The BBC came 20th with 2.30M, and Sky came 120th with 401k.
LBC isn’t the biggest UK channel by subscribers. It had about 1.6M subscribers, against 20.2M for the BBC and 9.4M for Sky. It got 1.8 views per subscriber on the night. The BBC got 0.11 and Sky 0.04.
A few things set it apart:
Named talent. Simon Marks, Matt Frei, Andrew Marr and Jon Sopel, plus guests such as John Bolton and Hasan Piker.
Opinionated, Trump-centred titles, such as “Nightmare midterm results for Donald Trump“.
A 12-hour overnight stream, from 22:00 to 10:00 GMT, which drew 641k views.
An early start. About 35% of its views came from videos posted before the first polls closed.
Its typical standard clip got 100k views, against 41k for the BBC and 13k for Sky.
4. Creators beat most newsrooms
Brian Tyler Cohen’s single live stream (3.04M views) beat LBC’s entire election-night coverage (2.86M).
That’s the pattern across the data. Independent creator channels made 7.5% of the election-night videos (390 of 5,173) but took 24.8% of the views. They averaged 146k views per video, four times the newsroom average of 36k. Across the whole event the gap narrowed but held: creators made 8.1% of the videos and took 20.2% of the views, averaging 173k per video against 58k.
If you count host-led outlets with paid staff, such as The Bulwark and Daily Wire, as newsrooms, the creator share of views drops to 16%. It’s still a big share for a small number of videos.
5. The night was only half the story
Again, as you might expect, election night videos kept growing after the night was over. Two days later, the same 5,173 videos had 381M views, up 66%. But not every format grew:
Shorts grew 151%, and their share of views went from 16% to 24%.
Standard videos grew 84% and took almost half the added views.
Live streams that had ended grew only 16%.
Then there were the new videos. In the two days after the night, the same channels posted 5,444 more midterm videos, which drew 358M views by the morning of 6 November. That’s almost as many as the night set, and those videos are still growing. Standard videos took 56% of those views, Shorts 26% and live only 18%.
CNN got more views from its aftermath videos (65M) than from its election-night ones (38M). Eight of the ten most-watched aftermath videos were CNN clips, all of them standard videos between 9 and 23 minutes long: reaction, analysis and the fallout.
6. One clip can change a channel’s ranking
Jimmy Kimmel’s results breakdown went from 3.5M to 13.9M views in two days. That one video took his channel from 11th to 3rd.
ITV is the UK example. Its clip “Watch as Donald Trump reacts to defeat in US midterm elections“ went from 230k to 3.95M views and lifted ITV from 127th to 18th. Sky climbed too: its election-night videos went from 401k to 1.07M views, and its 28 aftermath videos put it 34th for that period, against 120th on the night.
7. The whole event so far
Across the night and the two days after, CNN reached 104M views and MS NOW 69M. Jimmy Kimmel Live came third with 24M from just four videos.
The UK outlets ranked: LBC 16th (8.7M), BBC 19th (8.1M), ITV 25th (6.6M) and Sky 53rd (3.4M).
8. What formats worked
I tagged each non-live video by type from its title. It’s rough, and about 40% didn’t fit a type, but some patterns stood out. Each figure compares a video with its own channel’s typical midterm video:
Analyst and data videos did 1.49 times as well.
Speeches did 1.35 times as well.
Explainers did 1.15 times as well, and results calls 1.08 times.
Commentary did about the same as usual.
Shorts of every type did worse than their channel’s typical video, at 0.58 to 0.78 times. But Shorts grew the most after the night, so that gap narrows over time.
Long-form wasn’t where the views were on the night. Uploads of 20 minutes or more took 5.1% of election-night views and 10.5% of aftermath views. Videos of 10 to 20 minutes did better, rising from 14.9% of views on the night to 28.3% after it.
9. Big views, few new subscribers
The election lifted whole-channel views across the board. AP’s daily views were 2.52 times their usual level, and NBC’s 2.50 times. In the UK, ITV (1.78x) and LBC (1.74x) did best. Sky reached 1.36x and the BBC only 1.11x. The Guardian’s daily views actually fell.
Subscribers barely moved. YouTube rounds subscriber counts, so small changes don’t show, but MS NOW was the only big mover, up 100,000 (1%). Of the UK channels, only ITV showed a gain (10,000). The rest were flat within rounding. A big night brings views, but it doesn’t seem to bring many new subscribers.
What I’d take from this
Title the stream for the event. The BBC’s titled results stream took 59% of its night and showed up in 18 of my 20 searches. A generic 24/7 stream can still rank, as CBS’s did, but a title that names the election tells searchers straight away that this is the coverage they want. It also lets you measure the night.
Plan the morning after as hard as the night. The two days after drew almost as many views as election night, and they came from clips, analysis and Shorts, not live.
Put people and a point of view up front. LBC and the creators show that named presenters and a clear angle travel further than neutral packaging.
Cut the clip people will share. One ITV clip moved ITV up more than 100 places.
Don’t expect a big night to fill your subscriber count. Views doubled for some channels. Subscribers barely moved.
The videos that did best
Election night, most-watched (views at 10:40 GMT 4 Nov)
NBC News: Steve Kornacki analyzes 2026 midterm election results | Kornacki Cam - 6.3M, live
MS NOW: WATCH LIVE! VelshiCast on Election Night 2026 - 5.4M, live
Associated Press: Election results 2026: LIVE AP race calls and Senate and House maps - 4.2M, live
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Jimmy Kimmel Breaks Down Midterm Election Results, Trump Loses Bigly - 3.5M (13.9M two days later)
Brian Tyler Cohen: LIVE: 2026 MIDTERM ELECTION RESULTS - 3.0M, live
CNN-News18: US Midterm Results 2026 Live: Democrats Win House? Senate Flips - 2.8M, live
CBS News: Democrats win House and Senate as more election results roll in - 2.6M, live
MeidasTouch: LIVE: 2026 MIDTERM ELECTIONS - 2.5M, live
CBS News: Breaking down election results as Democrats take control of Congress - 2.5M, live
CNN: Dems win the Senate, CNN projects - 2.5M
The two days after, most-watched (views at 08:52 GMT 6 Nov)
Jimmy Kimmel Live: Trump Blames Everyone But Himself for Huge Midterm Loss - 8.3M
CNN: ‘F*** them’: Far-right reacts to Trump family after election rout - 7.5M
CNN: Republicans turn against Hegseth after election losses - 7.1M
CNN: Trump blames Fox News, GOP candidates for midterm losses - 4.0M
CNN: ‘Blue-nami’: Enten unpacks Dem election flips - 3.2M
MS NOW: ‘This is an EARTHQUAKE!’: Joe on Democrats winning House and Senate - 2.7M
CNN: We just witnessed the end of the Trump era - 2.4M
Biggest climbers after the night (views added, 4-6 Nov)
CNN-News18: ‘A Tough Night’: Vivek Ramaswamy Reacts After Losing Ohio Governor Race - +3.8M, a Short
ITV News: Watch as Donald Trump reacts to defeat in US midterm elections - +3.7M
9 News Australia: Blue tsunami hits the US as Trump threatens to unleash ‘tremendous power’ - +2.6M
The UK’s best
BBC News: US 2026 Midterm Elections and Results - Live - 1.36M on the night, 2.0M two days later
LBC: Nightmare midterm results for Donald Trump - 641k on the night, the 12-hour overnight stream
LBC: Instant reaction: Trump loses the House and Senate - 571k on the night, 938k two days later
Sky News: The scale of the Democrats’ win | Midterms results analysed - 130k on the night, 370k two days later
Some caveats:
It’s a sample. My research covers the channels that were visible in US and UK search on the night, not every outlet. Ranks are within that set.
Classification isn’t perfect. I checked a view-weighted sample of 40 kept videos and all were genuine midterm coverage. Totals could still move a few per cent with different rules, so read close pairs, such as CNN and MS NOW, as level.
Views are not viewers. One person can watch a stream several times.
Explore why your coverage is not leading to subscribers. And that is part of a wider conversation…
Until next time,
Steve