New York
CNN
—
A new presidential candidate, several celebrities and slick programming helped Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris win this week’s Democratic National Convention, surpassing the television audience of last month’s Republican caucus.
According to Nielsen data, the audience for the four-day festivities in Chicago drew an average of 21.8 million viewers, surpassing the audience for the Republican National Convention by nearly 15 percent.
On the final evening of the week, Harris’ acceptance speech was watched by 28.9 million viewers, surpassing former President Donald Trump’s speech in Milwaukee, which drew 28.4 million viewers across 15 television networks. Trump’s more than 90-minute speech, the longest convention acceptance speech in recent history, came just days after his assassination attempt.
Harris’ audience victory was a blow to Trump Famously obsessed TV ratings and his audience size. On Thursday night, as Harris delivered his speech, Trump was seen posting live reactions to his Truth social account, then calling Fox News to deliver a wry rebuttal.
The final night of the convention was a win for MSNBC, drawing 6.5 million viewers, the most DNC showing in the network’s nearly 30-year network history. ABC saw viewership gains with 4.2 million viewers and CNN with 3.9 million viewers. While Fox News has generally outpaced cable news networks in the ratings race, including last month’s RNC, the right-wing network slipped to fifth place Thursday night.
Nielsen does not count viewership for streaming services such as YouTube or Twitch and public access channels such as C-SPAN, although many others join the legacy on digital platforms.
The excitement over Harris’ candidacy was fueled by speeches from former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as celebrity appearances by Stevie Wonder and John Legend. Pink, Kerry Washington and Mindy Kaling helped grow the audience.
DNC turned mundane moments into slickly produced spectacles, including a raucous take on the ceremonial roll call that featured music from every state and a surprise performance by rapper Lil Jon.
Lil Jon performs for Georgia during the DNC roll call
Last month’s Republican convention in Milwaukee came just days after the assassination attempt on Trump. Although it didn’t feature speeches from former presidents, celebrities like Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock made high-profile appearances. During the RNC, President Joe Biden was still the Democratic nominee and the party was in crisis mode following Biden’s disastrous performance in CNN’s June debate. As the pressure mounted, Biden ended his campaign the weekend after the Republican convention.
Attendance at the Democratic convention could be boosted by widespread speculation that music superstar Beyoncé will perform a surprise performance on the final night. The singer had previously given permission to the Harris campaign to use her 2016 hit “Freedom,” which Harris sang when she took the stage Thursday night.
Ahead of Harris’ address, rumors of Beyoncé’s appearance swirled on social media. That speculation led to major media figures on social media and television, some of whom suggested that Beyoncé might make a surprise appearance. Then, shortly before 8 pm ET, celebrity news site TMZ announced that Beyoncé’s appearance was confirmed.
But two hours later, at 10:01 p.m. ET, Beyoncé’s publicist told The Hollywood Reporter that Queen Bey would not be attending. He later confirmed it to CNN, “He was never scheduled to be in Chicago.”
A person familiar with the matter told CNN that campaign and convention officials have not confirmed Beyonce’s appearance. TMZ, the person said, had not reached out to the campaign or the conference for comment before publishing its report. TMZ did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment on its story.
But before Beyoncé’s rep went on the record to deny she was scheduled to attend, several people close to those planning the convention told CNN they believed the star would attend.
The Beyoncé buzz, along with speculation over Taylor Swift, had been swirling for weeks before the convention, and wasn’t properly covered by Harris’ campaign or Beyoncé’s camp until the last minute.
