Donald Trump’s speech accepting the nomination at the 2020 Republican National Convention sure sounded a lot like his speech accepting the nomination at the 2016 Republican National Convention. TLDR: America is a chaotic mess plagued by angry mobs and he will fix that (you know, even though he’s been in office for the past three-plus years). One difference? Last night’s speech drew way fewer TV viewers, with an average audience of 21.6 million versus 35 million in 2016, according to the L.A. Times.
It’s a record low for Republican party nomination speeches in recent years. In 2008, 38.9 million people watched John McCain accept; in 2012, 30.3 million people watched Mitt Romney accept; and in 2004, 27.6 million watched George W. Bush accept as the incumbent.
Worst of all for the former reality show host, the speech’s ratings—which will increase slightly when PBS and a few non-major networks that carried the broadcast—put him well below his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, whose acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention earlier this month drew 24.6 million viewers.
Unsurprisingly, Fox News had the largest share of viewers last night—and throughout the convention.
