As the contentious four-day hearing draws to a close, it has been reported that at least 300,000 people tuned in to watch the history-making 11-justice Supreme Court bench hear the Government defend its right to trigger Article 50. The figure accounts for viewers that watched the first day of the hearing via the Supreme Court’s own broadcast feed or via ITN’s main external feed, which was used by many online news websites to broadcast the showdown. However, as the figure excludes viewers who watched the hearing via BBC iPlayer or a televised news channel, the true number of viewers is likely to be considerably higher.
A far cry from Law & Order
However, enthusiasm for the dense constitutional case did not last long – viewers dropped to 90,000 on the second day of the hearing, and then to 70,000 and 60,000 viewers on the third and fourth days. According to tabloid publication The Sun, viewers took to Twitter to express their disappointment that the high-profile hearing had failed to deliver the drama and intrigue of popular courtroom television shows like Law & Order and LA Law. ‘Quite possibly the dullest piece of TV to ever be broadcast. Ever. Anywhere #SupremeCourt #Brexit. I lasted 3 minutes and 43 seconds’ said one Twitter user. Other added that they had trouble following the complex hearing. However, even on its least popular final day, the Brexit hearing still made broadcast history for the Supreme Court – the previous record for viewers for a Supreme Court hearing was just 20,000, for the PJS ‘celebrity threesome’ injunction case.
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