Last month, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the Jan. 6 committee, and her testimony against Donald Trump turned out to be a big hit with television viewers.

It easily reached a larger live audience than any of the four other daytime public hearings related to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, reported the Associated Press. The Nielsen company said that her testimony about Trump’s temper as plans to overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential election fell apart was watched by as many as 13.17 million people last week. Going by the numbers, it's a 28% jump from the 10.25 million who saw the Jan. 6 panel's previous daytime hearing. It was a 23% over the average from the four daytime hearings.

Hutchinson claimed that Trump was aware his supporters were armed in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. She also said that the former President lunged at his Secret Service detail in the car in an attempt to reach the U.S. Capitol on the day of the riot.

About 19.4 million people watched the Jan. 6 committee’s first hearing, which was the only one that was televised in prime-time. A public session was hurriedly scheduled by the Jan. 6 committee to hear Hutchinson’s testimony after expecting to be off until mid-July. The committee members built up anticipation by trying to keep the witness' identity a secret.

Many people later heard parts of Hutchinson’s testimony online or in news reports. So the actual number of people who heard what she said was actually bigger than the live coverage of the hearing.

Last week, CBS was the most popular network in prime-time, averaging 2.7 million viewers followed by NBC that had 2.4 million viewers. As for ABC, it had 2.1 million viewers and Fox had 1.6 million viewers. This was followed by Univision that had 1.2 million viewers then Ion Television with 1 million, and Telemundo with 900,000 viewers.

The top-rated cable network in prime-time was Fox News Channel, averaging 2.05 million viewers. This was followed by MSNBC that had 1.31 million viewers. HGTV had 858,000 viewers, Hallmark had 730,000 and finally, History had 685,000 viewers.

With an average of 7.2 million viewers, ABC’s “World News Tonight” topped the evening news ratings. As for NBC’s “Nightly News,” it had 6.1 million viewers. This was followed by the “CBS Evening News” that had 4.3 million viewers.

Since Hutchinson's shocking testimony, her life has taken a dramatic turn, reported PEOPLE. A friend said that safety precautions are being taken, and that Hutchinson "went into this knowing her life would change." Due to her appearance before the Jan. 6 committee, she has received threats and also faced attacks from anonymous sources disputing some of her testimony. But at least two anonymous Secret Service agents have confirmed it.

Cassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows
Cassidy Hutchinson, a top former aide to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, describes the actions of former President Donald Trump as she testifies during the sixth hearing held by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol on June 28, 2022 in the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC. The bipartisan committee, which has been gathering evidence related to the January 6, 2021 attack at the U.S. Capitol for almost a year, is presenting its findings in a series of televised hearings. On January 6, 2021, supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol Building in an attempt to disrupt a congressional vote to confirm the electoral college win for Joe Biden. Photo by Mandel Ngan-Pool/Getty Images
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