An assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump on Saturday drew millions of viewers to TV news broadcasts.
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| Former president Donald Trump raises his arm with blood on his face during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. JABIN BOTSFORD/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES |
Broadcast and cable networks swiftly switched to special coverage of the shooting at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania. One person died, and three people, including Trump, were injured before Secret Service agents neutralized the shooter. Trump reported that a bullet grazed his ear; two rally attendees were in critical condition.
During primetime Saturday, a total of 16.07 million viewers watched the shooting coverage on ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, according to early Nielsen figures (ratings data from NBC was not immediately available). Viewing numbers peaked at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT with almost 19 million people tuning in across those five networks.
A comparable number, 18.78 million, watched President Joe Biden's Oval Office address on Sunday evening across seven channels, including NBC and the Fox broadcast network.
Fox News emerged as the most-watched outlet in both cases. On Saturday night, it averaged 6.49 million viewers, significantly ahead of second-place ABC with 3.08 million. CBS attracted 2.69 million viewers, CNN had 2.45 million, and MSNBC drew 1.36 million.
These figures are substantially higher than usual: Fox News typically averages around 1.2 million viewers on Saturday nights, while CNN and MSNBC usually have under 500,000. Excluding sports, ABC and CBS generally draw fewer than 2 million viewers each on recent Saturdays.
During the 8 p.m. ET hour on Saturday, Fox News captured 7.12 million viewers, leading ahead of ABC with 3.97 million, CBS with 3.4 million, CNN with 2.8 million, and MSNBC with 1.65 million.
On Sunday, Fox News maintained strong viewership with 5.38 million viewers at the same hour for coverage of Biden's Oval Office speech, where he emphasized the need to "lower the temperature in our politics." ABC followed with 3.77 million viewers, while CBS drew 3.36 million. The Fox broadcast network averaged 2.29 million viewers, NBC had 1.81 million, CNN 1.28 million, and MSNBC 883,000 viewers.
