Mueller Testimony Draws Nearly 13 Million Viewers Across TV-News Outlets

Variety Staff

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Two rounds of congressional testimony from Special Counsel Robert Mueller Wednesday drew nearly 13 million viewers across the nation’s mainstream news outlets, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research.

According to the data, NBC drew the largest audience in the demographic most desired by advertisers, people between 25 and 54, while Fox News Channel attracted the biggest audience for the event overall.

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The early Nielsen figures measure viewing behavior from 8:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m eastern.

NBC captured an average of 536,000 people in the advertiser demo. ABC News came in second among people between 25 and 54, notching an average of 489,000, followed by Fox News with 441,000; CBS with 406,000; CNN with 365,000; and MSNBC with 347,000.

Fox News lured an average of 3.03 million people in total. MSNBC came in second among overall viewers, capturing an average of 2,408,000, followed by ABC with 2,124,000; NBC, with 1,989,000; CBS with 1,905,000; and CNN with 1,515,000.

Overall, coverage on the six networks was seen by approximately 12.97 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

CBS had to content with a blackout of its programming in millions of homes served by DirecTV, which is in the midst of a dispute over carriage terms for CBS stations.

Mueller’s testimony was the talk of Wednesday’s news cycle. He spent hours before the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee, and his actions, demeanor and retorts were chronicled not only by news anchors but on the late-night programs that followed their reports by hours.

Around 11 million people tuned in for an April press conference during which U.S. Attorney General William Barr offer remarks on the report, which chronicled an exploration into whether there was Russian influence on U.S. elections in 2016 as well as possible involvement by the Trump campaign and whether or not President Trump tried to influence attempts to investigate various matters.

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