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Ratings for Night 2 of the Democratic National Convention just slightly outpaced the Chicago event’s opening night.
As second gentleman Doug Emhoff, former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama took the stage at the DNC, coverage for Tuesday, Aug. 20 drew in 20.8 million viewers — up 3.8% from Night 1, which brought in 20 million viewers, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures.
As Barack Obama took the stage from approximately 11:03-11:37 p.m. ET, DNC coverage brought in about 21.9 million viewers. Overall, the event ran from 10:00 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. ET and was broadcast across 12 TV networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Scripps News, CNN, CNNe, Fox Business, Fox News, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.
The evening brought in a 40.4% bigger audience than the second night of the 2024 RNC, which scored 14.81 million viewers on Tuesday, July 16.
Like the opening night of the 2024 DNC, viewership for Night 2 was about on par with Night 2 of the 2020 DNC, which scored 19.22 million viewers, and was down from the 2016 DNC, which brought in 24.71 million viewers for its second night.
While the uptick from Night 1 was rather slight, if anything, a dip was to be expected for the Chicago-based event’s second night, as the 2024 RNC and the 2020 and 2016 DNCs saw a downtick from their Night 1 audience for Nights 2 and 3 before eventually seeing their largest audience on the final nights.
When breaking down the audience’s demographics, Night 2 tallied up 950,000 viewers among adults 18-34 — up slightly from the 851,000 viewers in the demo tuning in for Night 1. Night 2 also scored 3.89 million viewers ages 35-54 and 15.53 million viewers among adults 55 and over.
MSNBC was the most-watched cable news network of the night, with over 5 million viewers tuning in to Night 2 — up from the 4.7 viewers that tuned in the previous night. 3.3 million viewers watched CNN’s DNC Night 2 coverage while 2 million viewers watched on Fox News. DNC coverage boosted MSNBC to become the most-watched cable news network in both primetime and total day on Tuesday.
Other notable appearances from Night 2 of the 2024 DNC included Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who warned that Republicans will “come for IVF next,” as well as DJ Cassidy, who spun a personalized song for each state during the roll call. Rapper Lil Jon made a surprise appearance for Georgia, performing “Turn Down for What” and “Get Low.”
RNC Night 1 Draws 18.13 Million Viewers