The number of Americans watching Trump's impeachment hearings on TV pales in comparison to Nixon, and some are worried it could spell trouble for the Democrats

Associated Press/Susan Walsh

• Roughly 13 million people tuned in on TV to the first public impeachment hearing on Wednesday, drawing fewer viewers than other recent testimonies by figures like former FBI Director James Comey.
• The viewership also appeared to pale in comparison to the blockbuster Senate Watergate hearings in 1973, when tens of millions of Americans watched unedited tapes aired during primetime.
• Beyond the television ratings, a number of journalists and pundits have expressed concern in recent days that the impeachment hearings have been "boring" or lack "pizazz."
• But others pushed back against such criticism, saying that the impeachment hearings shouldn't be measured by their entertainment value — they're meant to investigate the president for alleged wrongdoing and hold him accountable.
• And it's important to note that live TV viewership for Trump's impeachment hearings don't tell the full story — for instance, many people may have viewed the hearings via livestreams rather than on television networks, and the Nielsen data doesn't encompass the viewership for other television networks like PBS and C-Span.
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Some 13 million people across the country tuned in via live TV to the first public impeachment hearing on Wednesday, in which lawmakers questioned two key witnesses over their bombshell allegations against President Donald Trump, according to preliminary Nielsen figures.

Though the major broadcast networks known as "The Big Three" and their cable news counterparts all aired the hearings live, they received significantly fewer views than other major recent congressional hearings.

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