TV Ratings: Impeachment Vote Draws Large Viewership Across Cable News, NBC

By Will Thorne

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Wednesday night’s vote in the House of Representatives to impeach President Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress drew a considerable number of viewers across the cable news networks and NBC.

In total, a little over 16 million total viewers tuned in around 9 p.m. to see the House vote in favor of impeaching the President.

The vote on the two articles got underway during the 8-9 p.m. ET hour, during which Fox News, and combined for 11.3 million total viewers, before that number grew to over 12 million by 9 p.m.

ABC and CBS briefly interrupted their regular programming for coverage of the vote, meaning that was the only network to bring live coverage throughout the voting process. The Peacock averaged 4.8 million total viewers in the 8-9 p.m. time slot.

The broadcaster also led the way in the coveted 25-54 demographic, scoring a 1.2 rating at 8 p.m., beating out “Tucker Carlson Tonight” (0.9) and CNN’s coverage (0.8). However, CNN managed to top the 9 p.m. hour with a 0.93 rating, ahead of “Hannity” on with a 0.91 and “The Rachel Maddow Show” with a 0.7.

In terms of viewership, Fox News led both the 8 and 9 o’clock slots with “Tucker Carlson” drawing just over 5 million in the former, and “Hannity” coming in bang on the 5 million mark in the latter. Over on MSNBC, “All In With Chris Hayes” drew 3.4 million viewers in at 8 p.m., followed by “Maddow” which drew 4 million pairs of eyeballs on  in the 9 p.m. time slot. CNN’s coverage drew 2.8 million viewers in the 8 p.m. time slot, while “Cuomo Prime Time” scored just over 3 million one hour later.