Joe Biden’s acceptance speech drew the highest TV viewership of the week from convention coverage.
The convention drew an average of 21.8 million viewers across six networks during the time period from 10 PM ET to 11:15 ET. That’s a slight uptick from the previous night, but still away from about 21% of the finals of the Democratic convention in 2016. The figures are early numbers from Nielsen, and were released by Fox News.
MSNBC topped coverage in that time frame with 6.1 million viewers, followed by CNN with 5.6 million, ABC News with 2,972 million, Fox News with 2,955 million, NBC News with 2,154 million and CBS News with 1,985 million.
In the demographic of 25-54, CNN topped the list with 1.7 million, followed by MSNBC with 1.2 million, ABC News with 799,000, Fox News with 639,000, NBC News with 568,000 and CBS News with 473,000.
The figures do not include views on other platforms, such as digital streaming. Joe Biden’s campaign has said that viewership has been on those platforms versus 2016.
Biden’s speech drew mostly positive reviews, but it was also notable for its brevity. At 24.5 minutes, it was the shortest Democratic convention language in generations. He criticized President Donald Trump and the way he handled the COVID-19 pandemic, but he never referred to him by name.
‘While I will be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president. I will work as hard for those who did not support me as I do for those who did, ‘said Biden. ‘That’s the job of a president. To represent us all, not just our base but our party. This is not a partisan moment. This has to be an American moment. ”
According to Nielsen, last night 24.6 million TV viewers drew across 12 networks. That compares to $ 29.8 million on the last night of the 2016 convention.
