The third night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention provided the largest TV audience for the event to date with an average of 22.8 million viewers across the major cable news channels and broadcast networks.
The 10 a.m. Eastern hour on Wednesday showed addresses of President Obama and sen. Kamala Harris of California, who made history when the first Black woman was nominated as vice president on a major party card.
According to Nielsen data, MSNBC had the largest audience with 6.46 million viewers from 10 a.m. to 11:15 p.m. Eastern, followed by CNN (5.79 million), NBC (2.52 million), ABC (2.48 million), Fox News (2.15 million), CBS (1.98 million) and CNN Español (22,000).
The total also includes audiences for PBS, Fox Business and Newsy, who also carried coverage.
Wednesday’s figure was well ahead of the first two nights for all 10 networks that carried the convention. The average for Monday was 19.7 million viewers, while 19.2 million watched Tuesday.
Despite the bump for the third night, the TV audience follows well under the 2016 Democratic Convention when Hillary Clinton was elected as the party’s nominee. The event averaged 25 million viewers over the first three nights – 18% higher than the 20.6 million for this year.
Last Thursday night of the convention, the acceptance will be addressed by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Given the general trend in television viewing, it is likely that a greater number of people are watching the whole thing as part of the convention on various streaming platforms. But the overall lift for TV coverage via streaming has been modest.
CNN said its convention livestream averaged 53,000 from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, up 6% from the same night in 2016.
