The big live events are cut into cubes in dozens of different ways on radio, television and the internet, so any attempt to measure the total audience is inherently imperfect. The first numbers are respectable, given the fragmented state of television, but other widely broadcast political events have gathered a larger audience in recent times. President Biden’s speech on the state of the Union in March had an average of 38 million viewers on sixteen channels. Tucker Carlson’s loyal fans stayed with him on Thursday, while he made a show ignoring the revelations about the attack on democracy. Carlson averaged about 3.3 million viewers, which is a typical night for him. Notably, however, Carlson did not take any commercial breaks, which could entice some of his viewers to try listening to another channel. While Carlson’s ratings reflect the fact that a section of right-wing spectators were not interested in consuming the hearing, other audiences were interested. Between 8 and 10 p.m. east, about 5 million people watched the ABC hearing. 3.6 million on NBC. and 3.4 million on CBS. Cable, more than 4.3 million watched on MSNBC and more than 2.7 million watched on CNN, between three and four times the typical prime-time audience of the channels. The Fox Business Network, which offered hearing coverage instead of Fox News, drew just 200,000 viewers. The right-wing Newsmax channel, which showed most of the audience, had less than 150,000 viewers.
