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First Public Impeachment Hearing Flops, Drawing 13 Million Viewers

posted onNovember 15, 2019
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Article snippet: The hearing, which featured Bill Taylor, acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official, was teased as a “bombshell, given House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) allocating Democrats more time to dominate and minimize GOP voices in the first hour. Nonetheless, Democrats failed to live up to the hype, as reflected in viewership. According to Axios, Wednesday’s lackluster impeachment hearing drew just 13 million viewers. The number pales in comparison to those who viewed former FBI Director James Comey’s June 2017 testimony and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s September 2018 hearing, which saw 19.5 million viewers and 20 million viewers, respectively. Of the cable news networks, Fox News led the pack with 2.9 million viewers between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. EST, followed by MSNBC with 2.7 million, per Axios. CNN fell over one million viewers behind Fox News, attracting 1.8 million viewers. ABC edged out CBS, but both drew around two million viewers, followed by NBC with 1.7 viewers. The numbers, however, do not reflect those who watched the debate on alternative platforms, as Axios noted. The impeachment hearing left many Democrats feeling, privately, deflated. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) masterfully made a mockery of Schiff’s “star witness” by demonstrating Taylor’s stunning lack of knowledge: The hearing forced impeachment-driven Democrats and establishment media outlets to tweak the narra... Link to the full article to read more

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