The Nielsen company says an estimated 32.2 million people watched Donald Trump deliver his GOP nomination acceptance speech. But in an environment where he wasn’t sparring with other candidates – one where it was just Trump, in the limelight – the real estate developer didn’t seem to be much of a draw.
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That’s slightly less than the 30.25 million that tuned in to Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech in 2012; however, that figure includes viewership across ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox News, Current, Mun2, PBS and Univision.
Eight years ago, John McCain’s speech averaged nearly 39 million viewers, “about 8.6 million more people than last night’s viewership”, Nielsen said Friday.
Still, it appears the much-anticipated “Trump ratings bump” did not materialize.
Among the broadcast networks, NBC had the biggest audience during Trump’s speech. MSNBC drew 2.95 million viewers to its convention coverage.
The overall ratings for CNN were up sharply this year to 5.5 million viewers. The most-watched primary debate in 2012 only attracted 7.6 million viewers.
Regardless, both 2016 and 2012 pale in comparison to the 2008 RNC, which closed out with 38.93 million viewers across the three aforementioned broadcasters, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Univision and Telemundo, according to Nielsen.
The Trump nimbus could be wearing thin, however, after the non-stop exposure of the past 400 days and daily appearances during four days of the 2016 Republican National Convention.
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What’s known as the “gap” between the two channels has tightened considerably, although Fox remains in first place.
