Live coverage of Trump's impeachment trial on The Five

Research/Study Research/Study

Fox News aired more coverage on one night of Trump's defense than all three nights of House managers

  • After days of virtually ignoring President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial in the evenings during the House Democratic managers’ arguments, Fox News increased its evening live coverage when Trump’s team was making its case. Fox’s live evening coverage was longer during the second day of Trump’s defense than it was for all three days of the House managers' arguments combined.

    House impeachment managers started making their case to the Senate on January 22, but Fox broadcast the proceedings live for a mere 16 minutes between 5 p.m. and midnight.

    On the subsequent two days, as House managers continued their oral arguments, Fox broadcast the trial live for just four and three minutes, respectively. But on Monday, January 27, when Trump’s legal defense team started the second day of its case, Fox’s evening shows broadcast 31 minutes of the trial live, a marked increase over the prior evenings.

  • Fox News’ live evening coverage of Trump’s Senate impeachment trial
  • The Five aired 22 of those 31 minutes, which stands in stark contrast to the program not airing any of the proceedings live on January 22, 23, or 24. Likewise, Tucker Carlson Tonight broadcast the other 9 minutes but aired a minute or less of the trial live during each of the three days of the House impeachment managers’ arguments.

  • Methodology

  • Media Matters reviewed raw video from the SnapStream video service of Trump’s Senate impeachment trial on January 21 through January 27, 2020. We reviewed video from the moment the trial was scheduled to go into session until it was adjourned by Chief Justice John Roberts. We counted coverage as “live coverage” if the network aired audio and video of the trial without commentators speaking over it.

    The January 22 session adjourned at approximately 9:43 p.m. that evening. The January 23 session adjourned at approximately 10:32 p.m. The January 24 session adjourned at approximately 8:54 p.m. The January 27 session adjourned at approximately 9:03 p.m. All times are Eastern Standard Time.