More than 17 million television viewers across 10 broadcast and cable networks watched the second prime-time hearing for the House select committee’s investigation into the US Capitol attack on 21 July.
The ratings provided by Nielson reflect a roughly 11 per cent drop from the more than 20 million viewers who tuned into the committee’s first prime-time hearing on 9 June, but the eight hearings on Donald Trump’s attempts to subvert the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and their violent aftermath have averaged more than 13 million viewers, including more than 11 million viewers during daytime hearings, on broadcast networks.
The viewership does not count streaming figures from online broadcasts and social media. Coverage of the hearings have dominated cable news cycles, while clips of the hearings have appeared across platforms.
Thursday’s hearing outlined the former president’s hours-long inaction as the siege was under way, with testimony from former White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews and former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger.
Fox News did not air Thursday’s hearing, instead running commentary-focused counter-programming from Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. (Fox aired the hearing on its Fox Business network.) Mr Carlson’s programme featured an appearance from US Senator Josh Hawley, who was at one point the subject of that day’s hearing, with video footage showing the Missouri Republican fleeing the Capitol after the mob breached the building.
The committee is expected to resume hearings in September.
“Our committee will spend August pursuing and merging information on multiple fronts before convening in September,” according to committee co-chair Liz Cheney.
“We have received new evidence and new witnesses have bravely stepped forward,” she said during the hearing on 21 July. “Doors have opened, new subpoenas have been issued and the dam has begun to break ... We have far more evidence to share with the American people, and more to gather.”
