The jury was unanimous in its decision, but cable news was divided on the verdict.
On Thursday, viewers across the country flocked to their television sets to find out the outcome of the Manhattan criminal trial against former President Donald J. Trump.
According to Nielsen, Fox News drew the largest audience for its breaking news coverage of the 34 criminal charges, with 4.7 million viewers from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. — a big weekday afternoon audience and far more than CNN, MSNBC and the broadcast networks, which used time off their regular programming for the special coverage.
By the evening, when news of the verdict broke, MSNBC's viewership had soared. In a highly unusual prime-time victory, the left-leaning channel surpassed cable-news staple Fox News in both total viewers and among adults ages 25 to 54, the demographic most important to advertisers.
From 8 pm to 11 pm, MSNBC's programming averaged 3.4 million viewers to Fox News' 3.1 million. CNN averaged 1.3 million.
While many Americans learned of the verdict through online sites, email notifications or text messages from family and friends, the size of the traditional television audience still speaks to the intense interest in the extraordinary event of a former president facing a criminal conviction.
Presidential elections typically generate high news ratings, but 2024 bucks that trend. Fewer contests in this year's early primaries, plus a looming rematch between the same candidates from four years ago, offered little advantage to news networks. Many Americans are tuned out of political headlines or feel too fatigued by world events to focus on an election that's still five months away.
How a conviction of Trump will affect voter opinion is one of the first truly uncertain moments in this year's campaign. And next month comes a big one on television: a CNN debate in Atlanta on June 27, when Trump and President Biden face off in primetime for the first time.
Fox News, which has been dominating its cable-news rivals in the Nielsen ratings every night except Thursday evening, announced on Friday that it will air a pre-recorded interview with Trump on the Sunday edition of “Fox & Friends Weekend.” The interview will be moderated by co-hosts Will Cain, Rachel Campos Duffy and Pete Hegseth.
