Nearly 20M watched Jan. 6 hearing: Nielsen

[AZProgressive]

Nearly 20 million people watched Thursday night’s first hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol across broadcast and cable news, according to preliminary ratings figures from Nielsen.

https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/media/3519284-nearly-20m-watched-jan-6-hearing-nielsen/

[OnDoutside]

1. Is that good ?

[SoonerPride]

2. It's less than 10% of the population.

So no I wouldn't call it good.

Compare to Watergate hearings:

tens of millions of Americans watched unedited tapes of the 1973 Senate Watergate hearings that eventually sparked President Richard Nixon's resignation.

It's estimated that more than 80% of Americans tuned in to at least part of the hearings, according to the Associated Press.

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-impeachment-tv-viewership-comparisons-2019-11

[Sympthsical]

8. And it was about as captive an audience as was to be had

Consider this was prime time on just about every channel.

20 million people won't be tuning in first thing Monday morning.

I just don't think we're going to get as much movement out of this as some think. I was thinking about it last night. I tuned in although I originally wasn't going to. And all I could think is, "Man, the past 18 months have been very nice not having Trump on my screen every ten seconds." And now, there's an entire political and electoral centerpiece all about Trump.

How much appetite do people have for that? He was gone, it was amazing. People finally stopped talking about him.

And now he's back.

And it doesn't seem like great timing because of the economy. People have kitchen table issues staring them in the face on the daily. And we're basically going, "Hey! Let's talk about Trump all summer!"

The time for this was a year ago. Now . . .

I could be totally, totally wrong on my feelings about this, but I don't think I am.

[ReluctanceTango]

11. Maybe 80% over the course of the hearings

When there were fewer channels to watch.

But in one day? Maybe not until the end.

Most of the Watergate hearings happened during the day, when the soap operas usually aired. They didn’t get 80% viewership on those broadcasts, because a huge percentage of Americans were at work. It was rare to have TV sets at worksites back then, and a bunch didn’t allow radios, so workers weren’t paying much attention until they got home and Cronkite filled them in on the highlights. Maybe the afternoon paper provided nitty gritty details.

I know that the viewership wasn’t all that high all the time, because I was there in 1973-74. I remember my mom and stepdad asking my grandmother or me what happened while they were at work. I remember a bunch of disgruntled housewives turning off their TVs for disrupting their soaps. I remember the mahjongg ladies in my neighborhood letting their morning meets lasting later into the afternoon because their shows weren’t on.

So I doubt there were all that many 80% viewing days.

[SoonerPride]

12. Thank you.

Very interesting first hand info.

You are must likely right. At no point was 80% watching all at once.

[LeftInTX]

15. There wasn't anything else on during Watergate!

[Nevilledog]

3. For comparison

[OnDoutside]

6. Wow...a bit of a difference

[ReluctanceTango]

13. In this media environment?

Yes.

We’re not a 3-channel society anymore. People have far more options for what they can watch today that didn’t exist during Watergate, the comparison everyone will make.

But know this: Even during Watergate, the viewer numbers on most days weren’t earth-shattering. Nearly all of the hearings happened during late morning/early afternoon. A good number of them happened in the summer, when people even then watched less TV.

And remember what what America was like during Watergate: Mostly women, the elderly, and the less-common shift-worker at home during the day. The vast majority of adult men, like my stepfather, and a fair number of women, like my mom, we’re at work. We didn’t have stores open until 9 pm every day. Heck, even the grocery stores shut down at 7 or 8.

TVs and radios being allowed in the workplace wasn’t as common then, either. Both of my parents had to ask me what happened at the hearings during the summer, because they weren’t allowed TV or radio at work. That’s why I was assigned as the family “hearings watcher” while they were earning a living. I had to take notes, and everything! Still remember writing down that somebody called Jeb Magruder a “damned liar.” That was rather racy to hear on TV back then!

[Ohio Joe]

4. And that does not include anyone who streamed it...

I wonder what those numbers are

[Raster]

5. I streamed it and EVERYONE I know that watched streamed it.

We. Do. NOT. Do. Cable. Anymore.

[Tree Lady]

16. Very true we watched on ABC until they dared

To show commercial while Cheney was talking the switched to CBS but we have antenna stopped cable over a decade ago.

Wonder if it counts the antenna people?

[SamKnause]

7. I watched on YouTube.

There were many live streams available on YouTube.

[riversedge]

9. "Friday's preliminary figures are likely to grow and do not include viewers who watched the hearing

https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/media/3519284-nearly-20m-watched-jan-6-hearing-nielsen/


Friday’s preliminary figures are likely to grow and do not include viewers who watched the hearing via streaming service online like YouTubeTV and other platforms. .....................

[GoCubsGo]

10. Nielsen measures households, not individuals.

Unless every household has only one person, more than 20 million people were watching.

[ReluctanceTango]

14. A good point, but as a former Nielsen household

They do have a general idea of actual numbers of viewers, because the diaries you keep have the option to list who was watching something at a given time. They also know how many adults and kids are in a household from the selection process, if you have frequent visitors for TV watching, and so on.

Or that’s how it worked in the late 80s when I did my share to boost the local PBS ratings—er, when we were a Nielsen household.

I doubt that it’s changed much in that regard.