News coverage from a network other than Fox vastly outpaced the conservative network in viewership terms on the night earlier this week that Donald Trump’s fourth criminal case publicly emerged in Georgia.
The latest case, this time from District Attorney Fani Willis, relates to attempts by the former president and allies of his after the last presidential election to secure another term. The 19 defendants in Georgia, who are expected to soon turn themselves in for processing, are accused of involvement in a criminal conspiracy targeting Georgia’s election results from 2020. At 9 p.m., MSNBC — which was broadcasting a block of programming hosted by Rachel Maddow, who spoke with Hillary Clinton — notched over 3.9 million viewers. Fox during that same hour was showing longtime host Sean Hannity, who only got to 2.4 million viewers.
Later in the evening, from 11 p.m. to midnight, MSNBC reached 3.45 million viewers — and Fox during that hour, which saw the broadcast of “Fox News at Night,” notched 1.67 million viewers, far below MSNBC’s total. Data outlining these levels of viewership was flagged online by media reporter Justin Baragona.
Relatedly, it’s been shown in polling that many Americans are not accepting the arguments from Trump and various right-wing allies of his about the supposedly corrupt nature of the various criminal cases that he is facing. In recent polling from YouGov done in association with The Economist, a simple majority of registered voters said they approved of the most recent federal indictment from Special Counsel Jack Smith at the Justice Department, who also charged Trump with a series of crimes related to his attempts to stay in office despite losing. Only 38 percent of registered voters from the poll said they disapproved, no matter the consistency with which Trump has claimed that he’s the victim of election interference because of his active campaign for president. Trump announced this bid after the four underlying probes were already underway and known to the public.
MSNBC’s 9 pm coverage of Trump’s indictment — which included Maddow’s interview with Hillary — led all of TV with 3.9 million total viewers, beating Hannity by 1.5 million.
At 11 pm, during Fani Willis’ announcement, MSNBC doubled Fox News — 3.45 mill vs. 1.67 mill. pic.twitter.com/O5Zlbwu1Iu
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 15, 2023
