• by Wayne Friedman , November 14, 2019

Two major 24-hour TV cable news channels -- Fox News Channel and MSNBC -- posted the best overall viewing numbers for the first day of House Impeachment hearings on Wednesday, outperforming other networks.

Between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Fox News posted a Nielsen preliminary-measured 2.89 million viewers, while MSNBC earned 2.70 million. 

By way of rough comparison, these daytime numbers are more than double what these networks usually receive when looking at total-day viewing data. In the third quarter, Fox averaged 1.3 million viewers, with MSNBC at 880,000 and CNN at 627,000.

Farther down the list -- looking at roughly the same time period, five hours/30 minutes to six hours/30 minutes, depending on the network -- ABC saw 2.01 million, with CBS at 1.97 million, CNN at 1.86 million and NBC at 1.68 million.

A total of 13.1 million Nielsen viewers watched the proceeding across all networks.

Looking at key 25-54 viewers, ABC touted the best results -- averaging 496,000 viewers, with Fox News Channel at 442,000, NBC at 440,000, CNN at 428,000, CBS at  384,000  and MSNBC at 365,000.

During the 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. prime-time period, Fox News Channel led the way, averaging 3.96 million overall viewers (635,000 among 25-54 viewers); followed by MSNBC with 2.81 million viewers (510,000 in 25-54) and CNN at 1.30 million (352,000, 25-54).