Most of the networks saw a drop in viewership on the second night of the 2016 Republican National Convention, which featured keynote speeches from Speaker Paul Ryan, Donald Trump Jr., and Tiffany Trump, among others.
NBC was an exception to this trend. The Peacock was the only network to grow its total viewer audience from night one to night two, improving by 20 percent. NBC was the No. 1 broadcast network for a second consecutive night, and was No. 1 in the key A25-54 demo for a second consecutive night, beating all broadcast and cable nets.
Fox News beat the cable competition both in total viewers and A25-54, and for a second consecutive night it drew more total viewers than any other network, cable or broadcast, during the 10 p.m. hour. Bret Baier and Megyn Kelly once again anchored America’s Election Headquarters at 10 p.m. ET.
CNN remained the No. 2 cable network both in total viewers and A25-54 during prime time, and it beat the cable competition when it came to the millennial demo. If we throw the broadcast networks into the mix, CNN finished third in the 10 p.m. hour, both in total viewers and the news demo. CNN finished second in total viewers on opening night, but fell behind NBC on night two.
CBS experienced a rough opening night, but got some good news on Tuesday. The Eye moved past ABC as the No. 2 broadcast network, defeating the Alphabet both in total viewers and the news demo. CBS was also the only network, cable or broadcast, to improve its performance in the news demo, up 1 percent from night one to night two.
- July 19: 8- 11 p.m. ET | Total Viewers / A25-54 Demo
Fox News: 4,838,000 / 1,002,000
CNN: 2,793,000 / 816,000
MSNBC: 1,539,000 / 435,000
- July 19: 10-11 p.m. ET | Total Viewers / A25-54 Demo
Fox News: 5,262,000 / 1,165,000
NBC: 4,682,000 / 1,563,000
CNN: 3,064,000 / 944,000
CBS: 2,537,000 / 792,000
ABC: 2,329,000 / 749,000
MSNBC: 1,533,000 / 467,000