Nielsen says 17.7 million watched Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearing

Jul 23, 2022, 9:55 AM

Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) gavels the end of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Cannon House Office Building on July 21, 2022 in Washington, DC. The bipartisan committee, which has been gathering evidence on the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, is presenting its findings in a series of televised hearings. On January 6, 2021, supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building during an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for President Joe Biden. (Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

(Photo by Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images)

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — An estimated 17.7 million viewers watched Thursday night’s hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The Nielsen Company said that is second to the 20 million who saw the first committee hearing on June 9, the only other one of the eight sessions held in prime time.

Ten networks aired this past week’s hearing live, down from the 11 that showed the June 9 session. The conservative network Newsmax dropped out this time.

The six daytime hearings average 11.2 million viewers, with a peak audience of 13.2 million on June 28, when ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified about former President Donald Trump’s behavior.

An estimated 13.6 million of Thursday’s viewers, or 77 percent, were age 55 and older, Nielsen said. Only 705,000 viewers were 18 to 34.

MSNBC said the 4.7 million people who watched its coverage represented the network’s biggest prime-time audience since the night of the event that the committee is investigating.

Public hearings are expected to resume in September.

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