15.8 Million Viewers Watch First Night Of Republican Convention

15.8 million viewers watched the first night of the Republican National Convention Monday night, with Fox News Channel leading all cable and broadcast networks with the largest single audience—7.063 million viewers, according to ratings data compiled by Nielsen.

Between the hours of 10 and 11 p.m. ET, Fox was far out in first place, followed by CNN, which drew a total audience of 2.009 million viewers. ABC was third with 1.978 million viewers, followed by NBC Broadcast (1.740 million), MSNBC (1.570 million), and CBS (1.479 million).

Among viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by advertisers, FNC was first with 1.572 million viewers, followed by CNN (606,000 viewers), NBC Broadcast (541,000 viewers), ABC (521,000 viewers), CBS (424,000 viewers) and MSNBC (308,000 viewers).

The first night ratings—like ratings for last week’s Democratic National Convention—were down from 2016, suggesting that viewers were less likely to tune in to the modified format of the party conventions this year, adapted into live streaming events due to the coronavirus.

While Fox News’ audience was up dramatically from the first night of the Democratic convention a week ago, the overall audience was lower. The first night of the Democratic National Convention, which featured a prime time speech by former First Lady Michelle Obama, drew a total audience of 18.7 million viewers one week ago. MSNBC led with the largest share of the audience for the DNC, with 5.096 million total viewers, followed by CNN (4.777 million viewers), ABC (2.442 million total viewers), NBC Broadcasting (2.282 million), Fox News Channel (2.099 million) and CBS
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 (1.985 million).

Among viewers 25-54, the demographic group most valued by advertisers, CNN finished first with 1.496 million viewers, followed by MSNBC (1.008 million viewers), NBC Broadcasting (676,000 viewers), ABC (650,000 viewers), Fox News Channel (438,000 viewers) and CBS (425,000 viewers).