Trump’s acceptance speech reaches fewer viewers than Biden’s

The final night of the Republican convention, which featured President Trump’s acceptance speech from the White House South Lawn, drew an average audience of 21.6 million viewers on Thursday, putting it behind turnout at the television of his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

Nielsen’s first number which includes ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, Univision and the three major cable news networks is 8% lower than the comparable figure from Biden’s speech at his convention on August 20.

The final total for Trump’s speech later today will be slightly higher, as it includes PBS and other networks that broadcast the speech. Biden’s final total was 24.6 million viewers.

Trump’s total will also end well below the 35 million viewers who watched him accept his party’s nomination in 2016, and will fall short of the acceptance speeches of previous Republican nominees John McCain (38.9 million viewers in 2008), Mitt Romney (30.3 million viewers in 2012) and George W. Bush (27.6 million in 2004).

TV viewing for both 2020 conventions is down from four years ago, as many viewers have likely watched part of the event through online streaming platforms that are not included. in Nielsen ratings.

Additionally, Trump’s audience was likely reduced by the 70-minute length of his speech, which ended after 11:30 p.m. EST. The number of people watching television generally decreases as the night goes on.

TV commentators noted the length of Trump’s speech, but it was actually shorter than his 2016 speech, which was 75 minutes long.

Fox News was the most-viewed channel for coverage between 10 a.m. and 11:45 p.m. EST on Thursday, averaging 9.2 million viewers, followed by ABC (2.6 million), NBC (2.3 million), CNN (2.2 million) and MSNBC. (1.85 million), CBS (1.78 million), Univision (927,000) and Telemundo (804,000).

Fox News – the prime-time destination for Trump fans – had the dominant share of viewers throughout the week with its coverage led by presenters Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. While popular conservative network opinion leaders Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity appeared in prime time during the week, they were not part of the main hour of convention coverage covered by all networks.

While Fox News is a destination for viewers looking for talking heads who support the Trump White House, the network has not allowed any of its paid contributors to participate in the work of the convention. CNN and MSNBC made exceptions for their contributors at the Democratic convention.