TV Ratings: 18.8M Viewers Watch Trump Guilty Verdict Coverage

Rick Porter
·2 min read
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TV news coverage of former president Donald Trump’s guilty verdict in a New York trial drew a big crowd Thursday.

Nearly 19 million viewers (18.81 million, to be precise) watched coverage of the verdict — cameras aren’t allowed in New York state courtrooms — on the three big cable news channels (CNN, Fox News and MSNBC) and broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC, based on final Nielsen ratings.

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Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of a hush-money scheme to prevent news of his sexual encounter with adult film actress Stormy Daniels from leaking before the 2016 election. The charges are class E felonies, the lowest level of felony crime in New York; sentencing is scheduled for July 11.

Fox News drew the biggest audience in the hour-plus surrounding the verdict, averaging 4.38 million viewers from 4:45-6 p.m. ET. MSNBC came in second with 3.54 million viewers, followed by ABC (3.47 million), NBC (2.53 million), CBS (2.5 million) and CNN (2.4 million). Averages for ABC and NBC go through 6:29 p.m. ET, just before their regular evening newscasts.

For just the 5 p.m. hour, Fox News drew 4.73 million viewers, MSNBC 3.79 million and CNN 2.62 million. All three cable networks were well above their usual averages for that hour — The Five draws about 3 million viewers for Fox News most days, while both MSNBC and CNN more than doubled their typical audience.

Fox News also led the key news demographic of adults 25-54, averaging 610,000 such viewers from 4:45-6 p.m. ABC was second with 576,000 in the demo, followed by CNN at 541,000, NBC at 473,000, CBS at 469,000 and MSNBC at 450,000.

MSNBC took over the cable news lead in primetime, averaging 3.4 million viewers and 417,000 adults 25-54 to 3.07 million/378,000 for Fox News and 1.25 million/255,000 for CNN.

Trump called the verdict “a disgrace” after leaving the courthouse in Manhattan Thursday and continued to decry the result in a rambling, 40-minute speech (which was billed as a news conference, though he didn’t take any questions) Friday morning. The former president is slated to give his first post-verdict interview on the weekend edition of Fox and Friends Sunday morning on Fox News.

May 31, 3:05 p.m.: Updated with more accurate cable ratings and primetime figures.

June 3, 9:15 a.m. Updated with final broadcast ratings and six-network totals for verdict coverage.

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