CNN led the way in cable news ratings during Wednesday’s impeachment of outgoing President Donald Trump, according to early Nielsen Media Research data.
According to Nielsen, from 12:30 p.m. ET to 4:45 p.m. ET Wednesday, CNN brought in a total of 3.804 million average viewers. MSNBC was in second place among the big three cable news networks, pulling in an average of 2.581 million. Fox News delivered 1.391 million average total viewers in that time period.
In the advertiser-coveted age demographic of 25 to 54, CNN continued leading the way with 1.077 million total average viewers while MSNBC brought in 464,000 in the demo, on average. Fox News’ average demo total from 12:30 to 4:45 was 278,000.
The trend continued in primetime. From 8 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET, CNN had 3.758 million total average viewers, of whom 1.181 million were in the demo. MSNBC brought in 3.753 million total average viewers and 723,000 average viewers from ages 25 to 54 while Fox News saw 3.074 million average viewers in total, of whom 594,000 were in the key demo.
The impeachment came after Trump was charged with “incitement of an insurrection.” Last Wednesday, pro-Trump demonstrators descended on the nation’s capital to protest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s win, which Trump falsely claimed since the election was the result of widespread fraud. At Trump’s urging, a mob of demonstrators breached the Capitol building, sending lawmakers into lockdown and postponing the certification. At least six deaths have been associated with the riot, including those of two Capitol police officers.