Vice President Mike Pence failed to attract as many viewers to his 2020 convention speech as vice presidential contender Kamala Harris, data showed.
Pence captured the attention of 15.7 million viewers across six networks during his address at the Republican National Convention, according to early data from Nielsen Media Research. Harris’s speech drew 21.4 million viewers during the Democratic National Convention.
There are several factors that could have contributed to the spike in viewership for Harris’s speech, including the fact that former President Barack Obama delivered a highly anticipated speech just before Harris took the stage. Hurricane Laura might also be responsible for some of the decline in viewers. The storm arrived on land in Louisiana and Texas in the early hours of the day on Thursday.
The RNC has lagged behind the DNC in each of the first three nights. On the first night, the Republican convention drew 15.8 million viewers compared to the Democratic convention’s 18.7 million viewers. A speech from Melania Trump boosted Republicans on the second night of the convention to 18 million viewers, but the total viewership still trailed the Democratic convention, which captured the attention of 19.2 million viewers.
The ratings from Nielsen Media Research only include early data from the six leading television networks, but many have been viewing the conventions online via livestreams. On the first night of the Republican convention, a stream from C-SPAN received six times as many viewers as it did during the first night of the Democratic convention.
The Trump campaign also touted that 23.3 million people clicked on one of its digital livestreams on the first night of the convention. The Biden campaign said that it drew 10.2 million virtual viewers in the week prior.
President Trump will deliver his acceptance speech on Thursday night as the convention comes to an end.
