About 40 million people tuned in to watch President Biden’s swearing in ceremony on Wednesday.
Citing data from Nielsen, Reuters reports that 39.9 million people across six major TV news channels watched Biden be sworn into office.
The figure covers the 30-minute span starting at 11:45 am on Wednesday, when Biden took the oath of office and delivered his inaugural address from the U.S. Capitol.
When Trump was sworn into office in 2017, 38.35 million people watched, 1.5 million less than that of Biden’s inauguration numbers.
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CNN was viewers top choice during the important half hour. The network attracted 9.9 million viewers, a 200 percent increase from 2017 when Trump was being inaugurated. Only 3.4 million people tuned in then.
In contrast, Fox News’ viewership fell by about 77 percent compared to 2017. During Donald Trump’s inauguration, the network attracted 11.8 million viewers this time they could only pull 2.7 million people placing them in sixth spot overall.
CNN also was the top network throughout the day, averaging 7.7 million viewers from 11 AM ET to 4 PM ET. They were followed by ABC averaging 5.37 million, MSNBC with 5.33 million, NBC with 4.71 million, CBS with 4.13 million and Fox News with 2.17 million.
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Biden’s historic and star studded inauguration ceremony included performances from Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and a stirring performance of ‘The Hill we Climb‘ by the youngest inaugural poet Amanda Gorman. Kamala Harris made history as she became the first Black person, first woman and first Asian-American to serve as vice president.
CNN also leads the big six cable news channels in viewership of the Primetime inaugural concert.
They attracted 6.68 million viewers, followed by MSNBC with 4.41 million, NBC with 3.86 million, ABC with 3.66 million and CBS with 3.04 million.
3.21 million tune in to watch Fox. They did not carry the concert.
It’s CNN biggest inaugural ratings in the network’s history.
