Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa and Senator-elect James Talarico
Screenshots/Hinojosa & Talarico campaign sites
I haven’t made a secret of my politics here, but this is not a politics newsletter so I won’t go too long on Tuesday’s Democratic voter uprising. But: I am very proud of my home state of Ohio, proud of my current home, Illinois (including a couple of local issues that will be materially good for my community), and especially proud — and utterly dumbfounded — at what happened in Texas, where I lived for seven years and where I still have family and good friends.
I was there for Betomania in 2018 and really thought that would be the best chance for a long time for a Democrat to win a statewide office. And then, thanks to a historically shitty group of candidates on the other side (who had nonetheless won several state elections in the past), a massive rising tide and years of tireless organizing by state Dems even when it seemed (and was) futile, the whole damn thing flipped. Every statewide office and the Texas House will be held by Democrats. They made big gains in the state Supreme Court and have a chance of controlling the state board of education. I have a hard time believing I just typed those sentences.
It was a wild night on TV too. Final ratings aren’t in yet, but more than likely NBC will lead primetime election coverage, becoming the first broadcast network to lead an election night (presidential or midterm) since 2012. Fox News has been No. 1 every two years since, with one exception for CNN in 2016, but will probably end up no better than third this year. I’ll have more to say about that with next week’s ratings.
As for last week: Sports telecasts dominated again, with three World Series games joining a bunch of football to rule both the primetime and full-day rankings. The WNBA Finals also had a very strong run despite mostly airing on cable. Saturday’s deciding game averaged 3.3 million viewers on USA, CNBC and Peacock, the largest audience ever for a postseason game in the league and No. 3 all time in the WNBA’s 30-year history.
The top 10 network primetime shows, top 20 on all outlets at all times of day and top 15 shows not including news and sports, also from any time of day, are below.
