Jan. 6 Hearings Pull 20M Prime-Time Viewers, Major Advertisers

Two hours of prime-time coverage of the January 6th insurrection Congressional hearings on Thursday night attracted 20 million collective viewers from eleven networks -- as well as prime-time advertisers, mostly on two major cable TV news networks.

Major advertisers on MSNBC included Azo (a pain reliever), Facebook, Parodontax (toothpaste), Sensodyne, Allstate, Dodge, Volvo, JPMorgan Chase, 4imprint, and AT&T Business.

On CNN, top marketers included Golden Corral, TD Ameritrade, USPS, Chevrolet, Bayer Aspirin, Dish Network, AMC, T-Mobile, Facebook, Upwork, and Amazon Alexa.

Many networks -- including the big broadcast networks -- aired the hearings in full, but with no TV commercials.

ABC had the biggest viewer total -- 5.2 million Nielsen-measured viewers. MSNBC was next with 4.3 million followed by NBC (3.7 million), CBS (3.5 million), and CNN (3.5 million).

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A smaller number of viewers went to other channels: CNBC (158,000), Newsmax (137,000), CNNe, NewsNation (125,000), Fox Business (223,00) and NBC LX -- around 600,000 in total.

Although Fox News Channel said it would not be covering the actual hearing, it did air a broad view of the hearing room where the proceedings took place, along with analysis in sometimes side-by-side video.

During the period of the live hearings -- 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. --- Fox News Channel ran virtually no advertising. (There were two commercial breaks on “The Ingraham Angle.”)

Analysts say Fox did this to keep its loyal viewers from changing to other news networks that did air the event. The wide-angle shot of the hearing room made it difficult to see actual video running as part of the committee’s hearing presentation.

Content in the hearings included references to specific Fox News Channel prime-time hosts -- such as texts from Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham.

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