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The co-hosts of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” were so eager to troll the former president and his ex-bestie Donald Trump that they rushed to boost viewership for the first prime-time hearing on Jan. 6 by hosting a far-fetched comparison to mock audiences for his hit NBC programs.
Thursday was the first of several hearings conducted by the House Special Committee on Jan. 6 to set out what its inquiry found in investigating the events leading up to the pro-Trump riot that erupted on Capitol Hill broke out.
The hearing was broadcast live by many of the biggest networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN. Early figures suggest that around 20 million viewers collectively tuned in to the political program, which was produced in consultation with former ABC News President James Goldston.
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The House Select Committee of Inquiry into the January 6 Hearing at the Cannon House Office Building on Thursday, June 9, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
On Monday, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski were unduly giddy touting those numbers at the expense of Trump, who is known for his obsession with television audience size.
“Mika, did you know that about 20 million people across America watched Thursday’s prime time hearing?” Scarborough asked playfully. “And as the Times notes, that 20 million viewership is on a par with big televised events like Sunday Night Football.”
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“Oh dear God!” exclaimed Brzezinski.
“But I want you to compare those 20 million viewers with the highest ratings Donald Trump has received for his reality show,” Scarborough said.
“Morning Joe” co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough boast of the 20 million viewers who watched the first hearing on Jan. 6 at the expense of former President Trump. (MSNBC)
Morning Joe then pointed to numbers showing that 20 million viewers surpassed the “7.6 million” Trump received when he hosted the final season of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” and the “4.6 million ‘ he earned for the final season of The Apprentice. Meanwhile, an image is displayed of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., standing over the former President, laughing.
“Wow, so these hearings trumped that,” Brzezinski said.
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“I’m not very good at math… but if you look at the last season of ‘The Apprentice’ Trump got 4.6 million and Liz Cheney got 20 million… and then ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ got 7.6 million this season get because you know , after ‘The Apprentice’ you know just 4.6 million for a primetime show that he said was the best of all time, they had to start, celebrities like Gary Busey and other people on it to get people to watch, right? Scarborough said while giggling. “Because Trump was 4.6 on a prime-time show…”
“Small,” interjected Brzezinski.
“Really small, but still, so look at those numbers again,” Scarborough said before re-airing the on-screen stats. “It’s pretty significant. So if Trump said ‘The Apprentice’ was one of the most popular shows of all time, that’s great.”
Donald Trump attends the ‘Celebrity Apprentice’ red carpet event at Trump Tower on January 20, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images)
The MSNBC program also cited the 11.76 million viewers who watched the final game of the 2021 World Series, the 11.78 million who watched the NBA Finals, as well as the single-digit viewership who watched “American Idol” and “Survivor.” tuned in” to argue that there is a high level of public interest in the January 6 hearings.
Nobody on the “Morning Joe” panel conceded that comparing apples to oranges is far more than mistaking the hearing’s viewership ratings, which aired on multiple channels, from the “Apprentice” programs, which aired on a single channel were broadcast.
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The last major multi-network event to garner roughly the same level of attention as the Jan. 6 hearing was President Biden’s first official State of the Union address in March, which garnered 38 million viewers and was the Democrats’ primetime debut led committees. President Trump’s last SOTU speech of 2020 also outperformed the hearing, garnering over 37 million viewers, which “Morning Joe” would rather not acknowledge.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.