The first five days of public impeachment hearings have been gold for television networks. According to the New York Times, the first set of hearings have earned “Monday Night Football-level viewership”.
Nielsen reports that the first day of hearings earned 13.1 million viewers. Since then, average viewership has dipped slightly to 12 million. Furthermore, Fox News has earned its highest weekly viewership of the year. In addition, MSNBC has achieved its best week in its 23 year history. Networks like CNN have seen their viewership between the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. double from this time a year ago.
To put this in perspective, last week’s Kansas City Chief’s win over the San Diego Chargers in Mexico City pulled in 12.7 million viewers.
Moving forward, televised impeachment hearings could see a spike as we near a possible public trial in the U.S. Senate. Not to mention, Donald Trump has suggested that he may be interested in submitting written testimony to the public hearings.
It is unclear whether there will be more televised hearings. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton and Former Acting United States National Security Advisrtr Charles Kupperman have been asked to testify, but have declined to do so. On December 10th, a court will decide if the two must testify or not.
