Ratings For Jan. 6 Hearing Blow Trump & Fox Out Of The Water

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Figures for the number of people who watched this past Thursday night’s public hearing of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot reveal the total was far higher than the number of people ordinarily watching Fox News around that same time, meaning during primetime.

Obviously, the total viewership for the January 6 hearings represents numbers added up from the broadcasts on a slew of networks rather than just one, but the stark difference in viewership size demonstrates how the riot panel’s investigation isn’t something Fox can simply contain. On Wednesday night — the day before the hearing, Fox apparently averaged over 2.87 million viewers during the so-called primetime period. (Among Fox, CNN, and MSNBC, Fox led.) Tucker Carlson’s Wednesday night broadcast reached some 3.6 million viewers. In contrast, Nielsen data indicates that some 17.7 million viewers watched the Thursday riot committee hearing, where panel investigators focused on action Trump himself took — and didn’t take — as the riot unfolded last year. That total is lower than the viewership recorded for the first primetime hearing of the January 6 committee. Some 20 million watched that one.

Hearings held between those two took place in the daytime. Those hearings enjoyed an average of 11.2 million viewers. Notably, some 13.6 million of the viewers of Thursday night’s hearing were 55 and older — suggesting the committee’s proceedings are well-positioned to make a significant impact on the views of Trump and the GOP held by older Americans. In CNN polling, support among voters 65 and up for the GOP Congressional contender in a hypothetical midterm elections match-up evidently fell by 15 percent throughout recent months, reaching a level two percentage points behind Democrats. One of the key developments on the national political landscape in the time between the first and second poll was that now concluded series of hearings spotlighting the riot committee’s findings. The panel will be holding additional hearings later this year as the investigation continues.

This weekend, committee members including Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) appeared on Sunday morning television to discuss the progression and ramifications of the probe. During an ABC appearance, Kinzinger said he believes there to be evidence of criminal acts implicating the ex-president, and in the face of concerns about the potential political ramifications of prosecuting Trump — particularly in the scenario in which he’s also running for president again — Kinzinger brought the discussion back to the dangers of essentially letting Trump get away with it in the face of evidence that could lead to prosecution. A lack of accountability for the ex-president could mean he or someone thinking similarly might feel emboldened to undertake similar acts in the future. “I certainly think there’s evidence of crimes, and I think it goes all the way up to Donald Trump,” Kinzinger said.