DNC Viewership On TV Networks Tumbles 48 Percent From 2016

Democratic National Convention night two viewership was down at least 48 percent from broadcasts of the same night in 2016, even though many Americans are subject to government restrictions keeping them cooped up at home far more this year. According to reports, the top six broadcast networks, MSNBC, CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, and CNN, only received 6.13 million viewers combined during air time of the convention this year.

To put it in perspective, “America’s Got Talent” received more views during its scheduled hour on NBC than any other network individually recorded during the second night of the DNC.

Tuesday night, which featured former U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer, former Secretary of State John Kerry, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former President Bill Clinton, former President Jimmy Carter, and others, was supposed to showcase the “leaders and the experts…who seek to unite and not divide.”

The viewership gained by the six main networks the first night of the 2020 DNC was also down by 6 million viewers from the first night of the DNC in 2016, which topped out at 25 million broadcast viewers. Night one did, however, pull significantly higher numbers of people, 19 million, than those who tuned in this Tuesday for night two.