GOP Convention’s final night viewership surpasses 2020, with Fox News outperforming CNN, MSNBC, and ABC combined

The Republican National Convention’s viewership topped 2020’s total for the final night, which featured former President Donald Trump’s nomination acceptance from Milwaukee.

The Hollywood Reporter said, the number of viewers averaged 25.38 million people across 14 outlets on Thursday night.

“That was up about 7 percent from the final night of the 2020 convention (23.81 million viewers across 13 channels). Nielsen says the audience peaked between 10:45 and 11 p.m. ET, early in Trump’s speech,” the Reporter noted.

It was early in his speech when the 45th president discussed the July 13 assassination attempt, which he said he only planned to tell once.

Viewership for this year’s Republican National Convention averaged around 19 million viewers across all four nights, up slightly from 2020 but down around 22% from 2016.

More than 25 million people tuned in live to the final night. https://t.co/CgOVtQ0V76 pic.twitter.com/Y0u1thEJIF

— Axios (@axios) July 20, 2024

The average viewership of 19.07 million over the four nights was slightly below 2020 average of 19.39 million, but three of the four nights did beat the last convention’s totals. However, Tuesday night saw a 24 percent decline from four years ago, bringing the entire average down.

The Reporter pointed out that Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game also aired Tuesday, which may have pulled away some viewers.

About 72 percent of the audience — 18.36 million — Thursday night was 55 and over.

Fox News led all outlets in viewership totals.

In a news release, the outlet said it took in three-quarters of the prime-time audience among the outlets.

Of the over 25 million who tuned in Thursday night, Fox attracted 10.3 million of them, making it the network’s most watched program of the year.

The previous high water mark of the year had been the June 27 CNN presidential debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, with Fox News’ simulcast drawing approximately 9.3 million viewers.

Fox crushed its rivals in its Thursday night coverage of the RNC convention.

NBC drew the next largest audience with 3.89 million; followed by ABC at 2.79 million; CNN, 1.97 million; CBS, 1.91 million, and MSNBC, 1.19 million.

Fox’s coverage drew nearly double the viewership of ABC, CNN, and MSNBC’s combined total of 5.95 million.

Axios pointed out, “While Nielsen includes data in its tally from those streaming the event on live TV, it does not include viewership data from those who may have watched the program on smaller devices or that tuned in via clips on social media.”