Trump's acceptance speech at convention falls far below GOP ratings record

[Chief Justice Keef]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/22/media/republican-convention-ratings-donald-trump/

Pretty abysmal ratings, considering many were expecting him to crack 40 million. Instead, ratings were just somewhat higher than Romney's.

Sad!

[Devout Centrist]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/22/media/republican-convention-ratings-donald-trump/

Pretty abysmal ratings, considering many were expecting him to crack 40 million. Instead, ratings were just somewhat higher than Romney's.

Sad!

I thought it was pretty effective, but he droned on and on. God, I felt like I was going to black out after an hour passed.

[ProudModerate2]

McCain had more viewers than trump. Wow.

Eight years ago, John McCain's speech averaged almost 39 million viewers, "about 8.6 million more people than last night's viewership," Nielsen said Friday.

[Gass3268]

Well, many people have watched it online.

Exactly, there has been so much cable cutting and people moving away from TV, due to Netflix and whatnot. I wouldn't expect many more tv ratings in the future for anything.

[heatcharger]

Well, many people have watched it online.

Exactly, there has been so much cable cutting and people moving away from TV, due to Netflix and whatnot. I wouldn't expect many more tv ratings in the future for anything.

While this is true, this didn't stop the Republican debates from having record numbers.

[ProudModerate2]

But most viewership ratings (including Nielson) include all forms of "viewing" .... be it OTA broadcast, satellite, cable, internet, etc.
Do they not ? (I'm asking, not sure).

[Crumpets]

The debates had high viewership because Trump is a loose cannon and people wanted to see if he'd punch Jeb Bush in the face or measure his penis on live TV. Nobody actually wants to hear him yell a scripted speech for over an hour.

[tmthforu94]

Well, many people have watched it online.

Exactly, there has been so much cable cutting and people moving away from TV, due to Netflix and whatnot. I wouldn't expect many more tv ratings in the future for anything.

While this is true, this didn't stop the Republican debates from having record numbers.

Harder to catch some of the debates online since they were only being streamed by one or two stations. This was covered by all the major news networks, CPSAN, YouTube, etc.

[SillyAmerican]

But most viewership ratings (including Nielson) include all forms of "viewing" .... be it OTA broadcast, satellite, cable, internet, etc.
Do they not ? (I'm asking, not sure).

I watched each day's broadcast on YouTube. Yes, there was a considerable (a full day) delay in my getting to it, but I watched it all, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't included in any viewership stats. Not sure how many others might have done the same thing, but I think as time goes on, the number of folks going this route will continue to grow (and the number of people watching more traditional broadcast formats will continue to shrink), so I'd weight the importance of reported viewership numbers accordingly...

[Seriously?]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/07/22/media/republican-convention-ratings-donald-trump/

Pretty abysmal ratings, considering many were expecting him to crack 40 million. Instead, ratings were just somewhat higher than Romney's.

Sad!

There's another thread on this. It was revised upward to ~32.5 million post-prelims. And they didn't include PBS, like they have in years past. PBS set out a press release that they had 2.5 million viewers in the 10-11 pm Eastern hour when Trump gave his speech. So that takes it to about 35 million.

As stated here. None of the numbers include CSPAN (which many here were watching because of the non-talking heads) and the RNC cable channel that was available on some cable systems. Lastly, there's the online feeds, which were not included in the tally. It's entirely plausible that you get to around a 40 million number, if all those numbers are included.

Also keep in mind that McCain had an NBC lead-in of a football game.

[Redban]

McCain had more viewers than trump. Wow.

Eight years ago, John McCain's speech averaged almost 39 million viewers, "about 8.6 million more people than last night's viewership," Nielsen said Friday.

McCain had several advantages though --- the RNC that year came after the DNC convention, where Obama pulled nearly 40 million himself; it occurred during the Labor Day weekend, which is more favorable for television viewers; and it had an NFL game lead-in.