Nielsens reveal soaps bigger draw than impeachment

FPI / January 27, 2020

The corporate media can’t get enough. America could care less.

An online "InstaPoll" from Fox 5 in Washington, D.C. showed 63 percent haven’t watched any of the Senate impeachment trial. Another 22 percent are watching “some” and 15 percent check in for “updates," but from the "news," not the televised trial.

Nielsen ratings for Wednesday and Thursday showed that ABC, CBS and NBC lost a combined 3 million viewers per day by airing the Senate trial instead of the daytime soap operas.

“The conventional wisdom has long been that President Trump makes for great television ratings. But apparently that's only true when he's actually the one on-air,” Tiana Lowe noted in a Jan. 24 op-ed for the Washington Examiner.

According to the Nielsen ratings, the second day of the impeachment trial, being broadcast across half a dozen network and cable channels, drew 8.9 million viewers in total over the course of four prime time hours.

Trump drew in 32 million viewers at his Republican National Convention acceptance speech in 2016. The president’s State of the Union address last year garnered nearly 47 million viewers.

While their talking heads were being “dazzled” by Rep. Adam Schiff, the TV networks were suffering a “ratings disaster,” the Media Research Center (MRC) tweeted.

Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, responded to the MRC, tweeting. “Just wait till we find out Schiff has a long lost identical twin.”

“By suspending regular programming and joining cable news in providing hours of live coverage, the broadcast networks are signaling that viewers should consider the Senate trial a momentous, historic occasion,” said the MRC. “But viewers aren’t buying it.”

Viewers would much rather see “The Young and the Restless,” “The Bold and the Beautiful,” “Days of Our Lives,” and “General Hospital,” the shows which were pre-empted by the Senate trial.

As the week wore on, the TV audience for three networks for the Senate trial grew smaller. On Tuesday, 5.1 million tuned in for the start. The number fell to about 4 million on Wednesday and 3.8 million on Thursday, according to MRC.

“Tens of millions of viewers are willing to tune in to politics multiple times a year. But they don't think impeachment is important enough to watch,” the Examiner’s Lowe wrote.

Free Press International