About 24.6 million people tuned in across the major networks Monday to watch President Donald Trump be inaugurated for the second, nonconsecutive time, according to Nielsen.
Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th US President in the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington, DC, on ... [+]
Viewers watched the inauguration across 15 networks Monday, as viewership of the presidential event peaked with 34.4 million viewers during the 12:15 PM quarter-hour, according to Nielsen.
Of those who watched Trump’s inauguration on Monday, more than 10 million did so on Fox News, according to the network, which reported data from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST, and early Nielsen figures reported by The New York Times—though Nielsen reportedly noted figures may rise in revision.
ABC had the second-highest viewership with an average of 4.7 million viewers in that time period, followed by NBC with 4.4 million and CBS with 4.1 million—CNN had just 1.7 million viewers, according to data published in The Hollywood Reporter.
Fox News said the coverage was its second highest-rated inauguration day coverage in history, while MSNBC had just 848,000 people tune in, down from about 6.5 million in 2021, The New York Times reported.
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Viewership was down from the past two inaugurations. In 2021, about 33.8 million people watched President Joe Biden’s inauguration, according to Nielsen figures, and in 2017 about 31 million people watched Trump’s first inauguration.
Trump was inaugurated as president of the United States around noon on Monday, which was also Martin Luther King Jr. day. The ceremony and all other inaugural events were moved inside the Capitol Rotunda for the first time since 1985 due to frigid temperatures. The inauguration was attended by a number of billionaires and tech executives—including the three wealthiest people in the world, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg—in addition to lawmakers and all living former presidents. After taking the oath of office, Trump gave a speech to the Rotunda crowd before moving to a different venue and giving a longer, more free-styled speech about his hopes for his time in office.
Far more people tuned in to watch Trump’s only debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. More than 67 million people watched the debate in September, according to Nielsen, which marked an 18% increase from the 51.3 million people who watched Trump debate Biden months earlier.
More Than 67 Million People Watched ABC’s Harris-Trump Debate On TV (Forbes)
Trump Inauguration Photos: High-Profile Guests Move To Capital One Arena For Parade (Forbes)