Somebody’s going to need to eat his feelings with a triple scoop tonight:
President Trump’s Thursday night convention speech making the case for his reelection was lower-rated than his challenger Joe Biden’s speech one week ago, according to overnight Nielsen ratings.
About 21.6 million viewers watched coverage of Trump’s RNC address across nine cable and broadcast networks, down from 23.6 million viewers who watched Biden’s DNC address on the same nine networks.
The totals may fluctuate slightly when final numbers are released later in the day, but Biden clearly edged out Trump.
The Democratic convention was also higher-rated than the Republican convention overall when the audience for all four days is tallied up.Biden’s campaign celebrated the overnight ratings win — and embraced it as a potential way to get under Trump’s skin.(Trump insists he doesn’t watch much TV despite years of evidence to the contrary )
The president’s ratings obsession is well-documented. He has tweeted about ratings hundreds of times, often inaccurately. He raised the subject as recently as Friday morning, when he tweeted, “Great Ratings & Reviews Last Night. Thank you!”He did not share any immediate reaction when the initial viewership figures showed him trailing Biden.
If history is any guide, he may tout Fox News Channel’s ratings instead of the overall results. Fox News had by far the biggest audience of any channel on Thursday night, with upwards of 9 million viewers.
Or he’ll call the ratings fake news. Either way, it shows that many non-Fox viewers are tired of the freak show. And by the way, the convention was dull as dishwater. We’ve heard it all before. If you’re not a fan, you turn the station.