Ratings For MainStream Media Take A Dive During Impeachment Hearings; Less Viewers Than afternoon Soaps ?
The ratings are in for the first day of the Democratic House Managers impeachment arguments in front of the Senate, and the broadcast networks (ABC, CBS and NBC) collectively lost about three million viewers who would have been expected to watch their normal fare of daytime soap operas.
According to preliminary Nielsen data posted on TVNewser.com, just over 4 million people watched the first day of the Democrats’ opening arguments on Wednesday on the broadcast networks, who handed over vast swaths of their daytime programming to the impeachment trial. Among the Big Three, CBS saw 1.52 million average viewers, followed by ABC and NBC, with 1.29 million and 1.26 million, respectively.
These numbers are actually down from the 5.1 million average viewers who tuned in these networks for Tuesday’s tedious debate about the rules for the Senate trial.
[UPDATED, 3:55pm ET: The ratings for Thursday’s Day 2 of Democratic arguments were even lower than Wednesday’s, with a combined 3.8 million across the three broadcast networks.]
Cable news added an additional 4.8 million viewers to the total on Wednesday, but that’s also lower than the 6 million who watched Fox News, MSNBC or CNN on Tuesday. Apparently, there’s a higher audience for a back-and-forth between the two sides than for a multi-hour Democrat-only presentation of the same material that’s been the topic of most news coverage for the past four months.
MRC NEWSBUSTERS
Content like this is only made possible by contributions from readers like you. If everyone who enjoys our website helps fund it, we can expand and improve our coverage further. Plus you’ll get exclusive accsess to Family-Only original content and some free stuff! Join the RightWay Family today by donating @ patreon below: From this link below you can join a monthly patron tier, or make a custom donation of your choice to support The RightWay.
https://www.patreon.com/join/TheRightWay?
About Author
