Ratings slump for second Jan. 6 hearing as around 10 million tune in

The second public hearing of the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot drew around 10 million total viewers Monday, less than half the audience that watched the committee’s primetime opening presentation last week.

The preliminary numbers from Nielsen Media Research incorporated viewership across cable news, as well as ABC and CBS properties. Numbers from NBC News were not immediately available Tuesday.

Last week’s hearing aired on 12 different TV channels and drew an audience of 20 million Americans — more than watched this year’s Oscars or Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors, the latter of which aired the night before. 

Fox News did not broadcast Thursday’s hearing in favor of its regular programming but did cover Monday’s proceedings from start to finish.

While the hearing saw a dramatic drop-off in viewers from Thursday, it still managed to attract an audience comparable to some of the most-watched network TV shows.

The viewing figure came in just below that of both “NCIS” on CBS, which attracts around 11 million viewers, as well as the Tiffany Network’s “FBI” and its 10.3 million viewers. The number did however exceed the viewership of NBC’s “Chicago Fire” (around 9.9 million) and CBS’ “Blue Bloods” (roughly 9.6 million).

The second public hearing of the House select committee investigating last year’s Capitol riot drew around 10 million total viewers Monday, less than half the audience that watched the committee’s primetime opening presentation last week.

Monday’s hearing audience paled in comparison to other major political events like former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019, which drew about 13 million viewers. A similar number tuned in to watch former special counsel Robert Mueller testify in July 2019 about his investigation into alleged links between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russian officials.

Fox News, which released the preliminary Nielsen numbers, won the daytime ratings battle over its two main competitors Monday, averaging about 1.5 million viewers compared to 1.3 million for MSNBC and 653,000 for CNN.