MSNBC had highest non-election ratings ever on day of Cohen hearing

MSNBC had its highest ratings outside of a presidential election on Wednesday, the day Michael Cohen testified on Capitol Hill.

The network also had the most-watched cable show, “The Rachel Maddow Show,” across all cable networks in the 25 to 54 age group on Wednesday, according to NBC Universal.

{mosads}Cohen on Wednesday testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee about his 10 years as President Trump’s personal lawyer. The hearing lasted about seven hours.

While Cohen testified during the day, MSNBC had about 2.652 million, beating Fox News Channel’s 2.252 million and CNN’s 2.011 million. 

In the 25-54 age group that advertisers often look for, CNN was the leader with 554,000 viewers, followed by MSNBC with 421,000 and Fox News with 369,000.

Maddow’s prime-time show had 3.839 million total viewers and 818,000 viewers aged 25-54. Fox’s Sean Hannity had 3.705 million viewers including 698,000 aged 25-54. CNN’s was third, with 1.835 million viewers including 530,000 aged 25-54. 

Overall, Fox had the highest ratings for prime time on Wednesday night, averaging 3.4 million viewers and 629,000 in the key 25-54 group between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., as the cable news networks focused on analysis of the Cohen hearings and President Trump’s summit in North Korea. 

Cohen in November pleaded guilty to lying to Congress. As part of a plea deal, he agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the possibility of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Cohen said during the hearing that he did not have direct evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia, but made several claims that, if true, could implicate Trump in felonies.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Cohen hearing had at least 13.51 million viewers across all networks. 

Updated at 2:37 p.m.