The second night of the Republican National Convention performed better than the first, as far as total viewership is concerned.
After opening night drew just under 16 million total viewers across the broadcast and cable news networks which covered it, night 2 delivered 18 million viewers, which represents a 13% jump. That does still represents a 2 million viewers loss on the second night of the previous convention in 2016.
To nobody surprise, Fox News scored by the far the largest audience of the night, with just under 8 million total viewers tuning in (as opposed to 7.1 million the night before). This time around it was NBC that came second overall with 2.5 million, beating CNN and ABC into a third place tie with 2.1 million viewers each (a slight increase on night 1 for both). MSNBC’s coverage delivered 1.8 million viewers, as CBS came last once again with 1.5 million.
In terms of the key news demographic of people aged 25-54, Fox News more than doubled its closes rivals with 1.6 million. The order followed exactly the same as total viewership, with CBS trailing at 362,000 viewers in the demo.
Both the 2020 DNC and RNC are on course to be substantially down on the last edition, which isn’t necessarily surprising given that much of this year’s conventions are pre-taped, and that television viewership as a whole has declined significantly in the last four years.
Night 2 of the RNC was top-lined by first lady Melania Trump, who touched on COVID-19 and the protests against police brutality and racial injustice which have been going on across the country.
“It is a harsh reality that we are not proud of parts of our history,” she said.
But then added: “I also ask people to stop the violence and looting being done in the name of justice, and never make assumptions based on the color of a person’s skin.”
Elsewhere on Tuesday night, “America’s Got Talent” topped broadcast with a 0.7 rating among adults 18-49 and 5.6 million total viewers. “Love Island” aired its second episode of season 2 to a 0.3 rating and 1.6 million viewers, a slight tick down in both metrics from the premiere earlier in the week.
Univision tied for second place overall on the night, with episodes of “Como Tu No Hay Dos” and “Medicos” scoring a 0.5 and a 0.4 rating respectively.