Ratings dropped for Trump's second Supreme Court announcement

Brett Kavanaugh. — (Image credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

President Trump wasn't able to top his last Supreme Court announcement.

The Nielsen company shared on Tuesday that 25.6 million people tuned in on Monday night to Trump's prime-time announcement of Judge Brett Kavanaugh as his choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. It was a sharp drop from 2017, when 32.4 million people watched as Trump revealed his first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch. More people watch television in the winter when Gorsuch was announced, compared to summer, Nielsen said.

Fox News had the most viewers on Monday night, with 6.6 million watching Sean Hannity host the network's coverage. ABC had 5.25 million viewers, while NBC had 4.9 million, CBS 3.3 million, MSNBC 2.05 million, Fox 1.93 million, and CNN 1.59 million.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.