An viewers of a minimum of 20 million individuals watched the primary prime-time listening to of the Home Choose Committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 assault on Thursday evening, in line with Nielsen.
By scheduling a congressional listening to for 8 to 10 p.m., committee members and Democrats had been hoping to make the case to the largest viewers doable. ABC, CBS and NBC pre-empted their prime-time programming and went into special-report mode to cowl it dwell.
Although the Thursday evening determine pales subsequent to presidential debates (63 million to 73 million) or this yr’s State of the Union tackle (38 million), it’s nonetheless a lot bigger than the viewers that will usually watch a daytime congressional listening to. And it’s within the ballpark of tv occasions like a giant “Sunday Evening Soccer” recreation or the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
ABC attracted the largest viewers, with 5.2 million viewers. NBC and CBS every had an viewers of greater than three million. MSNBC averaged greater than 4 million, and CNN drew 2.7 million. (The 20 million determine didn’t but embody PBS, so the whole viewers was almost certainly a bit larger.)
Viewers who tuned in principally caught round for your entire congressional continuing. Viewership on every of the published networks remained regular between 8 and 10 p.m., in line with half-hour Nielsen breakdowns.
Whereas the published networks gave up their prime-time leisure choices and CNN and MSNBC gave the listening to wall-to-wall protection, there was a conspicuous outlier among the many cable information networks. Fox Information, the most-watched community in cable, didn’t carry the hearings dwell, as an alternative sticking with its normal prime-time lineup.
The Fox Information hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity devoted their reveals to Jan. 6, and each had the listening to enjoying dwell in a cut up display — however the feed from Congress was muted whereas the hosts spent two hours belittling the committee’s efforts.
“It’s deranged, and we’re not enjoying alongside,” Mr. Carlson mentioned of the hearings. “That is the one hour on an American information channel that won’t be carrying their propaganda dwell. They’re mendacity, and we’re not going to assist them do it. What we are going to do as an alternative is to attempt to let you know the reality.”
Fox’s counterprogramming efforts drew a median viewers of three million, which is nearly regular.
The Fox Information anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum did cowl the hearings dwell however did so on Fox Enterprise, which attracts far fewer viewers. Roughly 223,000 individuals watched the hearings on Fox Enterprise. When Mr. Baier and Ms. MacCallum converted to Fox Information for a two-hour particular at 11 p.m., a median of 1.3 million watched.
Native associates of the Fox broadcast community had the choice of selecting up the Fox Enterprise feed however weren’t required to take action. Some main native Fox stations, like Los Angeles and Chicago, took the feed whereas others aired frequently scheduled leisure programming. The Fox station within the New York market, as an example, elected to run episodes of “MasterChef Junior” and “Don’t Neglect the Lyrics.”
