Sara Fischer: 20M watch first night of DNC, down 22% from 2016

This is the most recent piece in AXIOS by WWSG exclusive thought leader, Sara Fischer. 

The Democratic National Convention (DNC) drew roughly 20 million viewers Monday night, per Nielsen. Like the Republican National Convention (RNC) last month, night 1 ratings for the DNC were up slightly from 2020, but were down significantly (22%) from 2016.

Why it matters: Monday marked President Biden’s final convention as a Democratic Party leader, but his speech began late on the East Coast, which may have impacted viewership.

• Around 19.1 million viewers watched the DNC live from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. ET during the president’s speech.

Zoom in: The event was carried live on 13 cable and broadcast networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Scripps News, Univision, CNN, CNNe, FOX Business, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.

• MSNBC drew the most viewers across all networks with 4.6 million, followed by CNN (3.2 million), ABC (2.8 million), Fox News (2.4 million), CBS (2.0 million) and NBC (1.8 million), according to fast national data provided by MSNBC.
• Monday marked the network’s largest DNC night 1 viewership ever, a spokesperson said.

Zoom out: The first night of the DNC had more viewers than the first three nights of the RNC, which drew 18.13 million, 14.81 million and 17.97 million viewers, respectively.

• The fourth night, which tends to be the best performing across all conventions, was watched by 25 million people.

• Viewership peaked at 28.4 million from 10:45 – 11pm ET, when Trump recounted the assassination attempt against him Saturday evening from his point of view.

The big picture: Like the RNC and every major live political TV event, the vast majority (76%) of voters who watched the convention live on Monday were over the age of 55, per Nielsen.

• The DNC has pushed to expand its reach to younger voters. Democrats are streaming the convention this week using vertical video on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, committee staffers told Axios.
• The convention granted special access to over 200 social media content creators.

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