MORE than 55 million people watched Tuesday’s presidential election coverage from 8 to 11 p.m., according to Nielsen.

NBC was the big winner on the broadcast side, averaging 15.2 million viewers, followed by ABC (13.2 million) and CBS (9.5 million).

Fox News Channel won the cable news race, with 8.1 million viewers tuning in from 8 to 11 p.m., followed by CNN (6.2 million) and MSNBC (2.9 million).

Fox Broadcasting, which offered coverage from 8 to 10 p.m., averaged 4.7 million viewers.

NBC, ABC, and CBS were all down from their 2000 election-night numbers.