Fox News had the highest number of viewers among cable news channels when the House impeached President Donald Trump Wednesday evening. NBC won the overall day in ratings Wednesday as the highest total of viewers tuned into the broadcast channel to watch coverage of Trump’s impeachment.
Specifically, 5.032 million people watched Fox News during the 8pm ET hour, when the impeachment votes took place. 1.090 million viewers were in the key 25-54 demographic. MSNBC had 3.236 million viewers during the same period, 672,000 of whom were in the demo. CNN brought in 2.838 million viewers, 1.013 million of whom were 25-54.
From 8:45 a.m. ET to 9 p.m. ET, 2.599 million viewers turned on NBC, 694,000 of whom were in the advertiser-coveted 25-54 age demographic. Fox News was in second place with 2.368 million total viewers. Fox News was in fourth place among the major news networks when it came to viewers between 25-54 for the total day: 458,000 of them were in the demo.
CBS brought in 2.311 million total viewers with 515,000 in the demographic from 8:45 a.m. ET to 9 p.m. ET. Next was ABC with 2.308 million, 547,000 of whom were between 25-54.
The last two spots for the total day were taken by cable news: MSNBC had 1.480 million total viewers and 256,000 in the key demo. CNN has fewest total viewers at 1.416 million, but did better than MSNBC in the demo: 405,000 of CNN’s viewers were between 25-54.
In a historic decision on Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald Trump. He is the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.
The House voted on two articles of impeachment, drafted by the House Judiciary Committee last week, which charged Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. For abuse of power, the House voted 230-197; for obstruction of Congress, the House voted 229-198.
Through the hearings that led to the drafting of the articles and the eventual vote and impeachment, Fox News had a strong showing for viewers. It averaged 2.504 million viewers for the five hearing days — which were Nov. 13, 15, 19, 20 and 21. In the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demo, Fox News had 378,000 viewers.
MSNBC was in second place for total overall viewers on those five days, averaging 2.482 million. MSNBC was last in the demo, as only 349,000 of those viewers were between 25-54. CNN snagged 1.681 million total viewers and 375,000 between 25-54.