The Ratings For Trump’s Big Night Fell Short of McCain, Romney, and Obama’s Nominations

Is Trump fatigue finally kicking in?

Let’s be honest — everything suggested that Thursday night’s telecast of the Republican National Convention would have been not only one of the most-watched events of the campaign season, but also the highest in recent convention memory.

Trump can’t be happy with these results.

The first numbers are in for Thursday’s night events, which was watched by 29.9 million people on broadcast between CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. How does the 29.9 figure stack up to recent convention history? CNN’s Dylan Byers has the numbers:

DNC ’12 (final night): 35.7m
RNC ’12 (final night): 30.3m
DNC ’08 (final night): 38.4m
RNC ’08 (final night): 38.9m https://t.co/8t39U34Qn0

— Dylan Byers (@DylanByers) July 22, 2016

Donald Trump has undoubtedly brought a mega ratings boost to just about every element of the campaign cycle. For example, the March 3 Fox News GOP debate from Detroit drew 17 million viewers, smashing the 5.5 million who watched the Democrats in Flint that same week. Republican debates during the primaries trounced the ratings of their Democratic party counterparts, averaging 16.2 million viewers compared to only 9.2 for the Dems. Few would doubt Trump’s influence on these statistics.

According to Early Nielsen media research, Fox News was #1 in both cable and broadcast news outlets during the primary hours of the debate.

In Total Viewers for the crucial 10 p.m. ET hour, Fox News and CNN won the cable battles, both eclipsing the broadcast networks on the way to big night:

Total Viewers — 10pm
Fox News – 9.354m
CNN — 5.477m
NBC – 4.587m
ABC – 3.867m
CBS – 3.809m
MSNBC 2.954m

And in the key 25-54 demo, it was again Fox News and CNN that outpaced their rivals:

Adults 25-54 – 10pm
Fox News – 2.483m
CNN – 1.901m
NBC – 1.766m
ABC – 1.434m
CBS – 1.208m
MSNBC – 927k

This morning, the newly crowned GOP nominee took to Twitter to praise the event:

One of the best produced, including the incredible stage & set, in the history of conventions. Great unity! Big T.V. ratings! @KarlRove

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2016

“Big T.V. ratings”? Yes. But the biggest? Apparently not.

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