A media expert predicted that a potential March 2024 trial in Georgia for former President Donald Trump could draw ratings to rival the biggest television events in history.
"There's gonna be an awful lot of coverage," consultant Brad Adgate told Newsweek on Wednesday. "The initial burst will do something almost like a Super Bowl in terms of views."
"The most watched political event was the first Hillary Clinton-Donald Trump debate in 2016, which was 84 million," Adgate told Newsweek. "If this will be televised by a dozen TV networks, not including streaming ... At least the opening day will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 million."
February's Super Bowl LVII drew 115.1 million viewers, the most-watched event in history, according to Nielsen.
Trump is already facing three other trials during the 2024 GOP primary season and has called the timing of those coordinated "election interference" on the behalf of President Joe Biden's Justice Department and Democrat district attorneys in Manhattan.
- Special counsel Jack Smith's Washington, D.C., trial has requested a Jan. 2, 2024 date.
- Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis has targeted an early March 2024 trial.
- Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's nondisclosure agreement trial March 25, 2024 trial.
- Smith's Mar-a-Lago classified documents trial sometime in May 2024.
Trump has expressed outrage at the attempts to lock him up in high-profile court litigating at the start and the heights of the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
"Only an out of touch lunatic would ask for such a date, one day into the New Year, and maximum election interference with Iowa!" Trump wrote on Truth Social last Thursday.
Federal court does not permit cameras in the court room, but it would be a ratings bonanza for networks covering the trial in Georgia.
The presiding judge in Fulton County, Georgia, will make the decision but the state Supreme Court has called open courtrooms for cameras an "indispensable element" of Georgia's judicial system, according to Newsweek.
The initial bump in ratings would settle quickly, particularly in a long-drawn-out case like racketeering trials tend to be.
"There's going to be an awful lot of fatigue factor that viewers are going to have with all of these ongoing testimonies and coverage that they'll be getting," Adgate told Newsweek. "Is this going to be the first court hearing? The second? Third? Fourth?"
All networks are going to want in on the courtroom drama involving the former president, "if they want to call themselves a news network," Adgate said.
"I don't know how you can not cover this," he said, adding, "I don't really think that they can get away without covering at least the first days of the hearing."
Communications consultant James Haggerty told Newsweek the ratings draws will put "just too much money at stake" to not air it.
"In fact, I'd expect CNN to broadcast all or most of a Trump trial as well," Haggerty said.
Even Fox News could not let go of its anti-Trump position to turn away, according to public relations expert Richard Laermer.
"While Rupert Murdoch may seem to be 'against' Trump, it's obvious his viewers are still entertained by the former president's antics, and that makes good TV for his base," Laermer told Newsweek.