With the 2016 Democratic National Convention in the books, we wanted to compare the cable news viewership of the 2008 DNC, Barack Obama‘s first nominating convention, with the 2016 DNC, which nominated Hillary Clinton.
Each figure below is a four-day sum total, per Nielsen Media Research, of CNN, Fox News and MSNBC in prime time. (Because the 2008 RNC was only three days there is not a fair comparison to 2016’s 4-day event)
As you can see, the 2016 DNC was watched by +25 percent more viewers than Barack Obama‘s first nominating convention. CNN had the most viewers, MSNBC was up the most, and only Fox News didn’t add viewers. The news demo was flat vs. 2008. CNN was most-watched (and was also the No. 1 cable news network of the month in the demo), MSNBC showed the most improvement, and Fox News saw a -17 percent decline.
DNC: 2016 vs. 2008
| Network | 2016 Total Viewers | 2008 | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNN | 20.49M | 16.99M | +20.6% |
| MSNBC | 15.20M | 9.03M | +68.3% |
| Fox News | 12.56M | 12.58M | -0.2% |
| DNC Total | 48.25M | 38.60M | +25.0% |
| Network | 2016 A25-54 demo | 2008 | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNN | 6.82M | 6.70M | +1.9% |
| MSNBC | 4.21M | 3.67M | +14.9% |
| Fox News | 2.74M | 3.29M | -16.7% |
| DNC Total | 13.77M | 13.65M | +0.9% |