The 2016 race for the White House is the ratings gift that keeps on giving for cable news.

Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC all saw their largest audiences ever for coverage of the Iowa caucuses on Monday, as Sen. Ted Cruz was victorious on the Republican side and Hillary Clinton squeaked out a victory over Sen. Bernie Sanders in her quest for the Democratic nomination.

Fox News Channel led on the night with 4.46 million viewers from 8 to 11 p.m. Eastern time, up 81 percent from the 2.63 million viewers who watched its Iowa caucuses coverage in 2012, the previous high.

CNN, which has invested heavily in political coverage, finished a strong second on the night with 3.73 million viewers, up 185 percent from 2012.

MSNBC, which had Brian Williams and Rachel Maddow in the anchor chairs for its coverage, was a distant third for the night with 1.97 million viewers overall and 592,000 in the 25-to-54 demographic

FNC’s coverage was anchored by Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly, the breakout TV news star of the campaign thanks in part to Republican candidate Donald Trump. Trump has accused Kelly of being unfair toward him since her tough questioning at the first GOP primary debate on Aug. 6.

Trump’s public attacks on Kelly have raised the anchor’s profile. She has been booked as a guest on the post-Super Bowl edition of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” airing Sunday.

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