ABC Leads Democratic National Convention Final Night in Early Numbers

Looking at the early numbers, night 4 could be on course for a similar total audience as night 3. A total of around 5.8 million viewers tuned in across the broadcast networks, per early Nielsen estimates, which is exactly the same number as the night before.

Individually speaking, ABC came out a comfortable winner with 2.4 million viewers, which represents its largest tally across the four nights. NBC, which led the way on night 3, lost several hundred thousand viewers to end up with 1.8 million. CBS once again came third with 1.6 million, down a touch from the night before.

We’ll have to wait until later in the day when the cable news numbers come in to find out whether the final night will reach the viewership heights of night 3.

Wednesday night’s proceedings drew around 21 million total viewers all told, a 15% jump from the night before.

That 21 million total was a solid 2 million viewer increase on the first night, which itself was down 27% from the previous convention in 2016. For comparison, night 3 of the previous convention drew just over 24 million viewers and the final night a whopping 28 million viewers.

It’s worth noting that the 2020 DNC being down on the last edition isn’t necessarily surprising given that much of this year’s convention is pre-taped and that television viewership as a whole has declined significantly in the last four years.

Other than Biden’s speech, in which he vowed to “overcome this season of darkness in America,” the final night was arguably stolen by “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who took multiple shots at President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence