An estimated 18.7 million people tuned in to the opening night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, a drop compared to four years ago, according to early Nielsen ratings.
The top five broadcast and cable news networks agreed to take the second and final hour of Monday’s virtual convention program, the first time either party has tested the format.
While the majority of viewers from 10 p.m. to 11:15 p.m. turned on CNN and MSNBC, which carried the full scheduled two hours, an average of 2.1 million people watched via Fox News, Nielsen Media Research found. About 4.7 million of the total audience, including on ABC, CBS, and NBC, were aged 25-54 years, a demographic advertisers covet.
Those numbers represent a decline from the 2016 convention. Last cycle, Democrats drew an estimated 26 million via traditional TV on the first night during the same time slot. The initial figures may be revised with data from smaller networks.
The Biden campaign appeared to anticipate a ratings hit on Tuesday morning, citing its online reach during a press briefing. Biden staff also touted the “dynamic experience” they created through a mix of produced content and live speakers.
“We really wanted to think about this as a convention across America,” Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield told reporters. “We’ve really thought about how we can reach people on nontraditional platforms and how we can really make this a dynamic experience for the person watching from home who might not otherwise tune in to an hour-plus of convention coverage.”
Later Tuesday, the team announced the convention notched up 10.2 million views via livestreams.
NEWS: 28.9 million Americans tuned in to @DemConvention last night across TV & digital platforms, up from 2016 & shattering the previous record for digital streams, which totaled 10.2m even as numbers still come in.
We are producing a digital convention, and people are watching.
— TJ Ducklo (@TDucklo) August 18, 2020
The coronavirus pandemic forced Democrats to scrap their plans for a partially digital convention last week, including hosting reporters and TV crews in the host city of Milwaukee. The development meant last-minute coverage changes in the days leading up to the event.
