And The Winners Are ...

NBC's one-hour prime-time coverage of the midterm elections Tuesday drew the night's largest audience. The Brokaw-anchored broadcast had 9.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research preliminary ratings.

CBS, with Dan Rather, had 9 million viewers and ABC, with Peter Jennings, had 7.5 million, Nielsen said.

The standings are a little surprising, since ABC is usually a close second to NBC in the evening news ratings. But CBS is much stronger than ABC in prime-time, and that might have influenced viewers.

Fox News Channel, which has moved into first place in the cable news ratings this year, maintained that edge on election night. Hume anchored the Fox elections coverage, which averaged 2.7 million viewers.

CNN was second with 2.5 million and MSNBC had 940,000 viewers, Nielsen said.