President Trump failed to draw as many television viewers as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention across nine networks, according to early ratings data.
This is only one piece of the ratings picture, however, and the Trump team has been quick to tout higher online figures over the course of the convention.
Roughly 21.6 million viewers spread across nine cable and broadcast networks watched Trump’s 70-minute acceptance speech at the White House on Thursday night, according to overnight data from the Nielsen Media Research, according to CNN. Biden’s speech last week drew 23.6 million viewers during the Democratic National Convention across the same networks. All told, Biden had roughly 2 million more viewers during his address.
Final figures are expected later in the day.
The Biden campaign took a victory lap as early numbers were released. “Huh! @AndrewBatesNC I always forget, does @realDonaldTrump care about his television ratings? Or is that not something he cares about? Like, do you think it’ll trigger him that @JoeBiden’s speech got way bigger ratings than his did?” Biden campaign national press secretary TJ Ducklo tweeted to a colleague.
But Trump also touted the viewership, tweeting, “Great Ratings & Reviews Last Night. Thank you!”
The Democratic convention earned more viewers on each of the four nights that it aired. California Sen. Kamala Harris, Biden’s running mate, earned more television viewers than Vice President Mike Pence, with 21.4 million viewers and 15.7 million viewers, respectively, on the third nights of the conventions. First lady Melania Trump’s speech on the second night drew the largest crowd of the Republican convention, with 18 million television viewers.
Democrats dominated Republicans in television viewership, but television data does not reflect those who tuned into the conventions via livestreams. The Trump campaign said that 23.3 million people clicked on one of its digital livestreams during the first night of the convention, and the Biden campaign said that it drew 10.2 million virtual viewers on the Democratic convention’s first night. The Republican convention also earned six times as many viewers from a C-SPAN livestream than the Democratic convention earned on its first night.
