Fox surely has reason to be happy with the ratings for Wednesday night’s interview with the scandal-plagued family of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting.” The sit-down, which aired on “The Kelly File” as the reality-TV family grapples with a child-molestation scandal, hauled in 3.1 million total viewers.
That was the highest viewership of the year for Megyn Kelly’s show (but not for the show itself, which drew 7.3 million total viewer in November, on the first night of the Ferguson riots).
That’s nothing to sneeze at — but it’s not for the record books, either.
To gain a bit of perspective, TheWrap looked at the numbers for other high-profile cable interviews in recent years.
There have been interviews that have handily bested the Duggars sit-down. For instance, LeBron James’ “The Decision” interview on ESPN in 2010 drew 9.95 million total viewers — even if more than a few of those viewers thought of it as a drawn-out ordeal of athletic narcissism.
Oprah Winfrey‘s OWN interview with Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of deceased singer Whitney Houston, also bested Wednesday’s “Kelly File.” That heart-to-heart, airing just weeks after Houston’s death in 2012, pulled in 3.5 million curious viewers.
Fox News’ November interview with Robert O’Neill, the man who says he killed Osama bin Laden, also bested the Duggars interview, drawing 3.37 million total viewers on its second night.
And
On the plus side for Wednesday’s “Kelly Files,” the Duggar interview bested Anderson Cooper’s CNN interview with disgraced Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, which provided a big boost for “AC 360” but still drew in a mere 720,000 total viewers. (An interview with basketball legend Magic Johnson on the topic of Sterling the night after actually scored marginally better, averaging 725,000 viewers.)
The Duggars interview also handily beat out