Ratings Are In: Biden Handily Beats Trump in Convention Speech Viewership — But Fox Draws Historic Audience
Early Friday, President Donald Trump boasted about the TV ratings — which had not yet been released — for his Republican National Convention speech Thursday night. Now, the numbers are in, and they are not flattering for the president when compared to his rival, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
According to data from Nielsen, the president’s address drew a total audience of 19.85 million across the six major networks (three cable and three broadcast) which carried the speech. For comparison, Biden, last Thursday, drew 21.81 million viewers for his address at the Democratic convention.
Fox News, as they have throughout the week, thoroughly dominated their cable news and broadcast competitors. For Thursday night’s event, the network drew an audience of 9.18 million — a huge number. The network noted in a press release that last night’s event was the highest-rated convention prime time in cable news history.
Fox News led in both total audience and the advertiser-coveted adults 25-54 demographic, nearly topping the other five major outlets combined. The netwrok drew 2.16 million in the key demo for the 10:00-11:45 p.m. timeslot during which the president’s 70-minute speech took place. CNN placed second with 2.18 million and 757,000 respectively. MSNBC trailed with 1.85 million and 391,000.
As for the broadcast networks, ABC eked out the top spot with 2.58 million overall and 725,000 in the demo. NBC followed right behind with 2.28 million and 722,000. CBS came in third with 1.78 million, and 460,000.
On FOX Business Network, anchor Neil Cavuto saw 1.15 million total viewers and 293,000 in the 25-54 demographic from 8:30PM-12AM/ET. And the network picked up 1.2 million total viewers and 327,000 in the 24-54 demo, between 10PM and 11:45.
The numbers for the RNC lagged behind those of the DNC for each of the first three nights. After Vice President Mike Pence’s speech on Wednesday drew nearly five million fewer viewers than Sen. Kamala Harris’ address the week earlier, the RNC narrowed the gap somewhat on Night 4 with the president’s address. But the DNC once again prevailed.
This post has been updated to include Fox Business Network.
