DNC Day One Ratings: MSNBC and NBC Win In Total Viewers And Demo

During Tuesday evening’s coverage of the first night of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, MSNBC and mothership station NBC beat all other networks in both total viewership and the age 25-54 demo.

For primetime cable network coverage, MSNBC nearly doubled the demo total of competitor Fox News:

8-11PM Primetime Viewers in 25-54 Demo
MSNBC: 1,067,970
CNN: 1,002,048
Fox: 554,294

In total viewership, MSNBC also won the evening:

8-11PM Primetime Total Viewers
MSNBC: 3,298,273
CNN: 3,003,298
Fox: 2,515,003

During the 10 p.m. hour, NBC and MSNBC beat out every other network in both demo and total viewership:

10-11PM Viewers in 25-54 Demo
NBC: 1,929,345
MSNBC: 1,431,929
CNN: 1,367,998
ABC: 1,142,927
CBS: 1,056,844
FNC: 550,149

10-11PM Total Viewers
NBC: 5,021,551
MSNBC: 4,106,622
CNN: 3,887,789
CBS: 3,268,520
ABC: 3,236,553
FNC: 2,397,710

All of the broadcast networks experienced a decline in viewership from the first night of 2008’s DNC — NBC is down 16%, CBS is down 15%, and ABC down 32%. Additionally, aside from MSNBC, all cable news networks saw decreased viewership from 2008’s first night. Fox News was down 31% and CNN saw 19% decrease.

Last week, Fox News won the first night of RNC coverage with 6,878,804 total viewers.

All figures via Nielsen Media Research.

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