About 21 million people turned on their TVs Wednesday to see Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris make history as the first minority woman to accept a major party’s vice-presidential nomination.
But Nielsen Media Research’s preliminary ratings for the 2020 Democratic National Convention fall short of those from the 2016 convention’s third night.
Four years ago, an estimated 24.4 million watched the Philadelphia-based broadcast via ABC, CBS, NBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC between 10 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. Wednesday’s figures, which may be revised as more information becomes available, don’t include CNBC data.
CNN and MSNBC dominated on Wednesday, carrying the full two-plus hours of coverage. The cable networks attracted 5.5 million and 6.3 million people apiece between 10 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox News tuned in for roughly the last 90 minutes. Fox earned 2.2 million viewers to CBS’s 2 million in that time.
Wednesday’s numbers follow a downward ratings trend for the 2020 Democratic convention compared to the 2016 iteration.
On Monday, 18.7 million people watched through traditional platforms between 10 p.m. and 11:15 p.m, according to initial Nielsen Media Research. Nielsen Media Research later adjusted their findings to say the first night drew 19.7 million viewers, still down from 26 million four years ago.
The Biden campaign touted how an additional 10.2 million people logged on Monday using various online livestreams. That day’s schedule was capped by former first lady Michelle Obama’s address. A Biden spokesman didn’t immediately return a Washington Examiner request for comment regarding how many viewers did the same for Harris.
