Viewing of live gavel-to-gavel coverage that aired on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and the three major broadcast networks peaked on its opening day when it reached an average of 13.1 million viewers.
The total number of viewers who tuned in — determined by Nielsen as those who watched at least six minutes of coverage over five days — came in at 70.8 million.
The daytime impeachment hearings gave a boost to cable news opinion shows in prime time. Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight” averaged 3.4 million viewers in November, “Hannity” with 3.6 million viewers, both all-time highs. “The Rachel Maddow Show” had an average of 3.3 million viewers.
Many more people watched some portion of the impeachment hearings online. NBC News counted 9.6 million video “starts” for coverage across its streaming platforms, which include Twitter and Facebook.
Source: Battaglio, S. (2019, November 26). More than 70 million watched TV coverage of Trump impeachment inquiry. Los Angeles Times.
Editor’s Note: Fox News scored the highest rating each day of the Impeachment hearings. Although live for only a handful of days, viewership pushed MSNBC’s November daytime viewing levels to its highest in its history.