TV Ratings: Fox News, ABC Draw Big Impeachment Numbers

    Will Thorne

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    The first day of the impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump drew over 13 million total viewers across the broadcast and news networks combined.

    Fox News’s coverage from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. drew the highest total viewership of any network, averaging around 2.9 million sets of eyeballs. MSNBC followed in second with 2.7 million viewers tuning in to its coverage in the same time period.

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    ABC, CBS and NBC all interrupted their regular daytime schedule to cover the hearings, with the Disney-owned network coming out on top with 2 million total viewers watching its impeachment coverage between 9:50 am and 4 p.m.

    ABC also performed strongest of any of the broadcast and news networks in the key 25-54 demographic, averaging 496,000 viewers. Fox News came narrowly beat NBC into second place with an average of 442,000 to the Peacock’s 440,000.

    CNN wasn’t far behind with 428,000, leaving CBS and MSNBC trailing in the demographic with averages of 384,000 and 365,000 viewers respectively.

    Yesterday’s proceeding saw Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, testify about his concern as it became clear that U.S. military aid to the country was conditioned on launching investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and the 2016 election.

    Taylor and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state, were the first witnesses called to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. The committee is examining whether Trump abused his power by encouraging the Ukrainian government to interfere in the 2020 election.

    The second hearing will take place Friday morning, with former U.S ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch set to take the stand.

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