Cassidy Hutchinson testimony set audience record for a daytime Jan. 6 hearing
Source: LA Times
People gather to watch the hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack
People gather to watch a hearing of the Jan. 6 committee on June 9, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
More than 13 million Americans tuned in to watch bombshell testimony from a former White House aide this week, making the Jan. 6 committee's latest hearing its second-most-viewed thus far.
The Tuesday afternoon hearing, which the committee announced just a day ahead of time, featured 25-year-old Cassidy Hutchinson, who served as an aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Her dramatic testimony attracted 13,231,000 viewers across all major networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and MSNBC, according to numbers from Nielsen, a ratings firm. This total topped the previous four hearings, which won audiences of about 10 million to 11 million people. The first Jan. 6 hearing, on June 9, drew about 20 million viewers, but it aired in prime time.
Although the numbers indicate that millions of people are watching the hearings, it's not yet clear how many Americans will ultimately tune in — the hearings are slated to continue into July — or what conclusions they will form. In 1954, about 80 million Americans (out of a much smaller U.S. population of about 169 million people) followed the series of hearings that led to communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy's downfall. About 3 in 4 American households watched at least part of the 1973 Watergate hearings, according to Nielsen estimates.
Although a majority of Americans — 58% — say they are following news about the work of the Jan. 6 committee, only 26% are following it very closely, according to a poll released last week by Quinnipiac University. Just 40% of Americans report that the Jan. 6 attacks had a major effect on their worldview, a Politico-Morning Consult survey found.
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/cassidy-hutchinson-testimony-set-audience-225925410.html
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People gather to watch a hearing of the Jan. 6 committee on June 9, 2022, in Washington, D.C. (Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images)
Now THAT is something!!!!!
But it also belies the repeated comparisons of modern hearings with those in the '50s or '70s, when there was no (public) "internet", and no (or limited) "cable". I won't even get into the fact that there were no video games or other electronic distractions (let along cell phones or tablets). One could even add the Iran-Contra in the '80s, Clinton-related hearings in the '90s, and you see the effect of the expansion and fracturing of media outlets.
In this era, there is NO WAY the average person would sit through what is basically "boring" questions and answers without the enhancements of not just audio, but video presentations, making it a multimedia production.
Forbes had a good historical/comparative article - https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2022/06/10/the-january-6-committee-averaged-nearly-20-million-viewers-more-than-the-trump-impeachment-trials/?sh=18e439ef4d8d
Brad Adgate Contributor
Brad Adgate is an Independent Media Consultant
Jun 10, 2022,04:20pm EDT
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The video landscape has been altered significantly in recent years as younger viewers migrate away from linear TV dropping their cable subscriptions for streaming video. Older adults continue to be heavier TV watchers especially for newscasts, which have a median age of 60+. Younger age groups watch video highlights and read social media posts.
Unlike the 1973 Senate Watergate hearings, which became a seminal moment for many Baby Boomers living during a three-network TV universe, the Jan. 6 hearing is unlikely to sway many younger viewers who have grown up in a contentious political climate with regular accusations of fake news.
During the first 50 years of television, there had only been a handful of live congressional hearings on broadcast television. There was Kefauver-interstate gambling (1951), Army-McCarthy (1954), Watergate (1973), Iran-Contra (1987), Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas (1991) and Clinton impeachment (1998).
Since 2015 Donald Trump has been a ratings juggernaut for cable news networks and the news division of broadcast television. Now seven years later and 17 months since he left office, the actions of the former President continue to attract eyeballs to the television set. As a result, news networks have been dominating cable ratings and broadcasters have more aggressively covered live congressional hearings.
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