Tuesday marks 20 years since O.J. Simpson’s slow-speed car chase dominated television and captivated America.
The day-long media circus helped TV usage peak with 55.7 million households watching television at 10 p.m. ET, according to the all-day viewing levels charted below.
TheWrap compared the TV usage data on June 17, 1994 — the date of the chase — with the same date a year earlier, and discovered the largest increase was during the 11 p.m. ET hour. That evening’s coverage garnered 12.3 million more viewers than on the same night a year prior.
Also read: O.J. Simpson’s Slow-Speed Chase Was 20 Years Ago Today: How It Would Play Out Now
To help understand the jumps, here’s the rough timeline of the events from the June 17, 1994 saga:
Simpson was expected to surrender to police at 2 p.m. ET, but that didn’t happen. At 5 p.m., the Los Angeles Police Department issued an all-points bulletin for the then-suspect. At 8 p.m., attorney Robert Kardashian read what many suspected was a rambling suicide note from the former NFL player.
Also read: 20 Big Changes in Hollywood Since O.J. Simpson’s Crazy Chase 20 Years Ago
At around 9:20 p.m., Simpson was spotted in the now-infamous white Ford Bronco being driven by his former University of Southern California teammate Al Cowlings. At 9:45, the police spotted him and the chase began up the 405 highway.
The chase ended around 11 p.m. at Simpson’s Brentwood home. After about 45 minutes more in the truck and an hour inside his house, Simpson finally surrendered to the authorities. The whole ordeal was watched by a reported 95 million homes.
Here are the hour-by-hour TV usage levels:
