Skip to content
02_Elements/Icons/ArrowLeft Back to Insight
Insights > Media

First Night of 2016 Republican National Convention Draws 23 Million Viewers

1 minute read | July 2016

An estimated 23 million people tuned in to watch the opening night of the 2016 Republican National Convention on Monday, July 18. Day one of the convention was carried live from Cleveland, Ohio, across seven commercially-supported networks and featured speeches by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Melania Trump.

While coverage varied by network, all seven aired live coverage from approximately 10 p.m. ET to 11 p.m. ET.

In terms of the social nature of the convention, 1.6 million Tweets were sent by 449,000 people in the U.S. about the first night of the “Republican National Convention,” according to Nielsen Social. Twitter activity spiked at 10:35 p.m. ET, when 9,900 Tweets were sent in one minute during Melania Trump’s speech.

The chart below highlights the sum of the average audience for these commercially-supported networks during common coverage.

2016 Republican National Convention

Sum of Networks Live + Same Day
  Day 1-July 18, 2016
  Rating Number of Viewers
All Households 14.8 17,243,000
Persons 2+ 7.8 23,019,000
Persons 18-34 2.8 1,924,000
Persons 35-54 7.4 5,915,000
Persons 55+ 16.6 14,246,000

2016 Networks Included:

Day 1 – ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox Business Network, FOXNC, and MSNBC

2012 Republican National Convention

Sum of Networks Live + Same Day    
  Day 2*-Aug. 28, 2012
  Rating Number of Viewers
Persons 2+ 7.7 22,301,000
*Day 1 events postponed due to Hurricane Isaac.

2012 Networks Included:

Day 2 – ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, FOXNC, CRNT, MSNBC, NBC and PBS

Continue browsing similar insights