Night 2 Viewers Tune in to Barack and Michelle Obama
UPDATE: Viewership of the Democratic National Convention rose slightly on the second night, reaching an average of 20.6 million viewers on Tuesday after reaching 20 million on Monday.
As the night before, the networks included in Nielsen’s measurement are ABC, CBS, NBC, Scripps News, CNN, CNNe, FOX Business, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.
Tuesday’s coverage included speeches from Barack and Michelle Obama. According to Nielsen, viewership during the former president’s speech rose above the evening’s average to reach 21.6 million.
‘We don’t need four more years of bluster, bumbling and chaos. We’ve seen that movie before, and we all know the sequel is usually worse,” he said, referring to Trump’s first term as president and current attempt to return to power. As the crowd began booing Trump, he repeated a line made famous by his 2016 DNC speech, when Trump first ran against Hillary Clinton: “Don’t boo. To vote.”
In her speech, the former first lady called the presidency a “dark job,” echoing a comment Trump made during his debate against Joe Biden earlier this summer.
“His limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happened to be black,” she said. “Wait, I want to know: who’s going to tell him that the job he’s currently looking for might be one of those ‘black jobs’?”
PREVIOUSLY: According to Nielsen, 20 million viewers watched the Democratic National Convention via the networks on Monday.
This puts Night 1 of the DNC ahead of each of the first three nights of the Republican National Convention in recent months, which reached 18.1 million, 14.8 million and 18 million viewers, respectively. The final night of the RNC, which featured a speech by Donald Trump, averaged 25.4 million viewers and peaked at 28.4 million.
Nielsen’s estimate takes into account coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, Scripps News, Univision, CNN, CNNe, FOX Business, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.
This year’s convention will take place in Chicago, with speeches mainly from President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton on the first evening.
Biden, who was running for re-election before dropping out of the race in July, vowed to be the “best volunteer” for Vice President Kamala Harris. He commented on his own campaign and presidency by quoting the song “American Anthem,” which he also referenced in his 2021 inaugural address. “Let me know in my heart when my days are done,” he said. “America, America, I did my best for you.”
Clinton, who lost to Trump in the 2016 election, lambasted the former president during her speech, saying: “Donald Trump fell asleep during his own trial. When he woke up, he made his own history: the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.” Of Harris, she said: “She will never write love letters to dictators. No matter what the polls say, we can’t give up. We can’t be driven down crazy conspiracy rabbit holes. We must fight for the truth. We must fight for Kamala, just as she will fight for us. You know what? It still takes a village to raise a family, heal a country and win a campaign.”
