Viewing of the Republican National Convention dropped to its lowest level of the week on Wednesday with 15.7 million people tuned in to the address by Vice President Mike Pence.
The early number from Nielsen that includes ABC, CBS and NBC and the three major cable news channels is down 13% from the comparable number on Tuesday, when 18 million viewers watched those networks to see First Lady Melania Trump speak from the White House Rose Garden. The final total put Tuesday's audience at 19.4 million.
The third night of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19 was watched by 22.8 million viewers. The program featured Sen. Kamala Harris' acceptance speech for the vice presidential nomination.
Wednesday night's figure for the GOP is also well under the 24.4 million viewers who watched the third night of the 2016 Republican convention that nominated Trump.
Convention viewing on Wednesday may have been diminished by many viewers along the Gulf Coast tuning into local coverage of Hurricane Laura, which was bearing down on the region at the time.
Both the Democratic and Republican conventions are well under the viewing levels from 2016 as traditional TV viewing has declined significantly among viewers under age 50.
More people are turning to streaming video platforms to watch some portion of the conventions. The Democratic National Committee said there were 35 million streams of its convention across various sites and apps last week.
On Monday August 24 2020, (l to r) Vice President Mike Pence prepares to speak during the first day of the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.; Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington; Donald Trump Jr. speaks during the first day of the Republican convention at the Mellon auditorium.
Fox News was the most-watched TV channel for coverage between 10 and 11:15 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, with an average of 7.66 million viewers, followed by NBC (1.966 million), ABC (1.895 million), CBS (1.781 million), CNN (1.515 million) and MSNBC (1.480 million).
Fox News, the favorite network of Trump supporters, continued to dominate the competition by accruing a 45% share of the convention audience.
Coverage also ran on Fox Business Network, Newsy, Newsmax, CNN en Espanol and PBS. Nielsen data for those channels will be added to the audience total later today.
Along with Pence, speakers in the hour included the president's daughter-in-law Lara Trump; Sam Vigil, whose wife was killed in a carjacking; Clarence Henderson, a Black desegregation activist; and Richard Grenell, President Trump's former acting national intelligence director.
