Fox News Beats CNN & MSNBC Combined In Kavanaugh Hearing Viewership

(Updated with broadcast ratings) The accusations of sexual assault against a nominee for the Supreme Court took over television yesterday and Fox News Channel won the biggest viewership vote.

With the Rupert Murdoch owned news cabler, CNN and MSNBC all on the riveting testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and then the relentless rage fill response from Brett Kavanaugh, FNC drew an audience of 5.7 million from 10 AM – 6:45 PM ET on Thursday. During the time that the former Georgetown Prep student spent back in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 3:15 PM ET to the end of the hearing on whether he assault Ford when the two were teens back in the early 1980s, FNC’s viewership peaked to 7.17 million sets of eyeballs.

Indicative of the deep divide that this second SCOTUS nominee of Donald Trump’s has cracked open in America, progressive leaning and FNC’s diametric rival MSNBC were second in viewership for the whole day of live coverage with 2.9 million. The more centrist CNN pulled in a total day audience of 2.9 million for the third spot. Added together, the Comcast and now AT&T owned newers were behind FNC by about 263, 000 viewers

In total, a whooping 11.05 million tuned in on cable to watch the pitched proceedings. FNC also was top dog among the cablers in the news demographic of adults 25 -54. The home of Sean Hannity and President Trump’s channel of choice had 1.06 million in the demo to CNN’s 730,000 and MSNBC’s 461,000.

Among the broadcast nets, ABC was first in overall viewership with 3.3 million watching their 9:54 AM ET to 7 PM ET coverage. However, while NBC drew the lowest overall audience of 2.9 million for its 9:30 AM ET to 6:57 PM ET coverage of the hearing, the Comcast owned network was tops in the 25-54 demo with a 0.62 rating to ABC’s 0.57. CBS was third in both categories with 3.1 million viewers in total and a 0.52 news demo rating.

Added all together, more than 20 million Americans watched the proceedings from D.C. – about 6 million less than watched the 2018 Oscars and over 5 million more than the total that tuned into Thursday Night Football last night.