The 2016 Republican and Democratic Presidential Conventions delivered impressive prime time ratings for the cable news networks. But have viewers stuck around after the conventions? Have CNN, Fox News and/or MSNBC received a post-convention ratings bump, or are the numbers back in-line with where they were before the convention? We will try to answer these questions and more.
The chart below shows prime time cable network performance for the first two days after the convention compared against averages from the two conventions themselves. From this, we can see how severe the post-convention drop-off in viewership was:
| Net | Dates | Time | Total Viewers | A25-54 |
| Fox News | July 18-21 / July 25-28 2016 | 8-11 p.m. ET | 4.489M | 1.011M |
| Fox News | August 1-2, 2016 | 8-11 p.m. ET | 3.070M | 584K |
| % Diff | -32% | -42% | ||
| CNN | July 18-21 / July 25-28 2016 | 8-11 p.m. ET | 4.288M | 1.388M |
| CNN | August 1-2, 2016 | 8-11 p.m. ET | 1.294M | 419K |
| % Diff | -70% | -70% | ||
| MSNBC | July 18-21 / July 25-28 2016 | 8-11 p.m. ET | 2.843M | 788K |
| MSNBC | August 1-2, 2016 | 8-11 p.m. ET | 1.709M | 399K |
| % Diff | -40% | -49% |
As one might expect, ratings started off low this week for each of the networks relative to their ratings during the conventions. Fox News won the first two days after the convention, and they also suffered the least-severe dropoff in viewership. CNN and MSNBC experienced a more significant post-convention ratings dropoff.
Another way to judge the impact of the conventions on cable news ratings is to compare prime time numbers from the week leading up to the conventions (July 11 – 14) against the first week out of them (August 1 – 4). We will break this down by showing each network’s weekly combined prime time audience:
| Network | July 11-14, 2016 | August 1-4, 2016 | % Diff |
| Total Viewers (8-11 p.m. ET) | |||
| CNN | 4,579,000 | 5,200,000 | +13.6% |
| MSNBC | 4,966,000 | 7,005,000 | +41.1% |
| Fox News | 12,310,000 | 11,593,000 | -5.8% |
| 21,855,000 | 23,798,000 | +8.9% | |
| A25-54 (8-11 p.m. ET) | |||
| CNN | 1,558,000 | 1,765,000 | +13.3% |
| MSNBC | 1,044,000 | 1,632,000 | +56.3% |
| Fox News | 2,354,000 | 2,200,000 | -6.5% |
| 4,956,000 | 5,597,000 | +12.9% |
CNN and MSNBC saw a significant bump in their prime time viewership last week relative to the week leading up to the conventions. MSNBC saw the biggest jump with a 4-day bump of 41 percent in total viewers and 56 percent in the news demo compared to the week leading up to the first convention. MSNBC finished No. 2 overall in total prime time viewers last week ahead of CNN.
CNN finished No. 2 in the news demo, ahead of MSNBC. The network delivered a combined 4-day bump of 14 percent in total viewers and 13 percent in the news demo compared to the week leading up to the RNC.
Fox News, on the other hand, is actually down this week relative to the week leading up to the RNC. FNC was down 6 percent in total viewers and down 6.5 percent in the news demo compared to the week of July 11.