Jan. 6 committee’s prime-time opener draws 20 million viewers

The prime-time telecast of the House Select Committee hearings on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was watched by 20 million TV viewers across multiple networks last Thursday.

The total, based on data from Nielsen, puts the twohour presentation in the range of other high-profile congressional and Senate hearings of recent years. The committee sought a primetime slot — rare for such events — when more viewers are available to watch.

Former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee was watched by an estimated 19.5 million viewers in 2017 when it ran in the midmorning hours on the East Coast. The confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh drew 20.4 million viewers in September 2018.

ABC had the most viewers last Thursday with 4.9 million, followed by MSNBC (4.2 million), NBC (3.6 million), CBS (3.7 million), CNN (2.6 million), Fox Business Network (223,000), CNBC (158,000), Newsmax (137,000) and NewsNation (125,000).

The hearings were also shown on PBS and C-SPAN and on many of the Foxowned TV stations across the country as well. Those audiences are not included in the Nielsen tally.

In a sign of the nation’s partisan divide, the presentation — which served as a curtain raiser for the committee’s findings to be presented over the next two weeks — did not air on Fox News Channel, which typically draws the highest ratings for special events in prime time.

Instead, the Rupert Murdoch-owned network chose to cater to its Donald Trumpsupporting viewers who have been repeatedly told that the Jan. 6 investigation is a political witch hunt aimed at damaging the former president, who allegedly conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election.