About 19.5m US viewers watched Comey testify about Trump

WASHINGTON: Former FBI director James Comey’s dramatic testimony before Congress on Thursday brought big audiences to US broadcast and cable networks, drawing about 19.5 million viewers, according to data from the Nielsen ratings agency.

That is a large audience for a daytime event, though it is short of the 30.6 million who tuned in to President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

Nielsen’s estimates people watching on include 10 US broadcast and cable television networks, but not those who streamed the congressional hearing on computers or mobile phones. Broadcasters interrupted regular programming to air nearly three hours of live coverage of Comey’s remarks about his dealings with Trump before the president fired him in May.

The tally was impressive for an event that aired during the work day, when typically only events like state funerals and royal weddings draw mass viewing, said Jeffrey Jones, director of journalism’s Peabody Awards and a professor at the University of Georgia.

Jones was travelling and saw crowds gathered around TVs in Atlanta’s airport to watch the hearing.

The year’s most-watched television event is football’s Super Bowl, which attracted 111 million viewers in February.

Game Three of basketball’s NBA Finals pulled in about 20 million for its primetime broadcast on Wednesday.