If the Democrats thought that the reaction to the Jan. 6 Committee was going to be riveting, the reaction so far from a variety of quarters says not so much.

CNN’s Chris Wallace expressed skepticism that the Committee was going to produce anything of worth.

“I’m kind of skeptical about what we’re going to see tonight and over the next couple of weeks,” Wallace said on CNN minutes before the hearing was set to begin.

Wallace said the committee had put itself in danger of falling victim to too much “hype” about its findings and “over-selling” what they have to tell the American people about the attack.

“You’ve got Jamie Raskin, one of the members of the committee, saying ‘this is going to blow the roof off the House,’ you’ve got Adam Kinzinger saying ‘It’s going to change history,” Wallace said.

As we noted, they tried to scale back expectations after those exaggerations. As my colleague Bob Hoge noted it was a dud.

Wallace also called it a bad look that the Committee had hired a former ABC official to help produce the event. “I think that’s a bad look both for the committee and the mainstream media to seem that they are hand in glove with each other,” Wallace said. No kidding, ya think?

If you can’t even convince Chris Wallace…

Then there was Frank Luntz who had a group of students with him watching the production. Luntz said they tuned out quickly.

It took 9 minutes for the hearing to show something other than a politician delivering a teleprompter speech.

That’s too long.

I have 10 students watching with me… And they aren’t watching anymore. They’re more interested in talking to each other than watching the screen.

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) June 10, 2022

“It’s too long,” said one of my students.

After 15 minutes, it’s just one politician speaking into the camera.

Literally no one is watching – the TV is on, but no one is watching.

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) June 10, 2022

This hearing may be fascinating for reporters, but I will be shocked if it changes minds.

After the first 35 minutes, just 1 of my 11 students is paying attention. #January6thCommitteeHearings

— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) June 10, 2022

If they’re not tuning in at all (which is most people) or even after 35 minutes, you’ve lost most people.

More people were likely watching Fox, the one network that wasn’t covering the show trial live. Tucker Carlson probably summed it up for everyone with how much they’re trying to deflect from all the Biden and Democratic failures with this.

TUCKER: "If at any time in your life you've ever made fun of totalitarian regimes that, ya know, broadcast lies into the homes of the population that they can't turn off, take a look at that. That's happening right now. Meanwhile, gas is over 5 bucks…" pic.twitter.com/JY0OnFGTGx

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 10, 2022