Most of Chattanooga’s leaders say they didn’t watch live coverage this week of the impeachment hearings in the U.S. House, but many said they watched either highlights or coverage of the testimony by diplomats and military leaders about how President Donald Trump and his personal attorney dealt with U.S. assistance to Ukraine.
Among the 69 civic, governmental and business leaders in the Chattanooga area responding to the Power Poll, 22% said they watched the impeachment hearings live and another 38% said they watched highlights of the hearings. But 40% of the respondents said they didn’t watch any of the impeachment hearings over the past week.
The initial impeachment hearing day last week attracted 13 million live viewers and other days of hearings this week had some lower viewership levels, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings. That’s far fewer than the tens of millions who watched the Watergate hearings in 1973 that led to the resignation of former President Richard Nixon.
The Trump impeachment hearings were aired on most of the major television networks and cable TV outlets, but viewers have far more TV options to choose from than during the Nixon impeachments hearings 46 years ago, and some commentators have suggested that the hearings this week lacked the drama of the Watergate hearings.
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