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And you thought the House Impeachment was bad…

When it comes to television ratings politicians will likely say things along the lines of the work they are doing is more important than drawing a television audience. However when it comes to this impeachment of President Trump the Democrats have plenty hinging on their goal, and the reality is that their show trial is not finding traction in the greater population.

Considering all of the hype connected to the Senate trial and the turgid efforts of the media to make this a historic event they are not garnering the attention. The ratings across all of the networks were weak in comparison to the regular daytime viewing. On Wednesday no network logged an audience over two million viewers, with MSNBC edging out Fox News with 1.79 million versus 1.71 million. There is a sobering reality attached to these returns — the averages are well behind the seasonal averages of soap operas in that time period.

Impeachment coverage was a ratings disaster for CBS, ABC and NBC this week, who lost millions of viewers by pre-empting their usual daytime soap operas. https://t.co/VXQuev7wNu pic.twitter.com/rvkPk8sYI4

— TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) January 25, 2020

Things only became worse as the trial continued. By Thursday Fox News was the clear leader with a diminished audience, with MSNBC coming in last in the key demo category, and CNN resting in last place with overall viewers, unable to even crack the 1 million mark. These are sad numbers, which grow sadder as the week wears on.

In primetime Fox News was the overwhelming winner, with numbers that were on par or better than MSNBC and CNN combined. These are dismal results when you consider everything wrapped around this impeachment. The Democrats have needed to get their story out and convince growingly apathetic voters their prosecution of the President has merit. It is fair to say the decision to hold off on sending the articles to the Senate has had an effect on any momentum they hoped to carry over.

The other problem that this lack of audience participation signals is in regards to those senators who were pulled from the campaign trail in Iowa. Forced to be in DC instead of Des Moines and elsewhere in the Hawkeye State the presidential hopefuls have to be hopeful for any screentime they might attain during this trial. If the viewership is dwindling then so is the scope of any influence they might hope to gain.

As much of the trial has been about procedural activity there has been little to hold people’s attention. We have seen little in the way of new developments, no bombshells have been exposed, and overall the Democrats have displayed a weak hand as they struggle to justify this effort. The fact that they are facing waning interest in the audience means their effort to create a demand for the removal of the president is weakening.

Considering all of this was done with the intent of damaging Donald Trump it appears the ones suffering the most have been the Democrats. When your days spent insisting that President Trump needs to be removed are faring worse than ‘’The Days Of Our Lives’’ things are looking grim for your desired goal.