The viewership for the first night of the Republican National Convention (RNC) ran circles around that of last week's Democratic National Convention (DNC) on C-SPAN's live stream. The RNC's first night drew nearly 444,000 viewers, while the Democrat counterpart had just 76,000 on its opening night. The DNC's opening night featured former First Lady Michelle Obama, one of the party's high profile surrogates, and former Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich.
Per Nielsen Media ratings last week, this year's DNC tanked in viewership from 2016, showing less enthusiasm for Biden than Hillary Clinton, via The Hill:
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's speech on Thursday night was watched by 21.8 million people on TV, beating out the numbers for other major speeches at the party's convention earlier in the week.
Still, the numbers for Biden mark a 21 percent drop from presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's acceptance speech at the Democratic convention in 2016. They are also more than 38 percent lower than President Trump's acceptance speech at the Republican convention four years ago, which drew 34.9 million viewers.
The RNC's opening night featured former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Donald Trump Jr., and others. Much of the RNC's first night featured speakers with personal stories of benefitting from the Trump administration's policies, and exuded enthusiasm. The DNC spent last week condemning the president without any substantial policy ideas.
The RNC continues throughout the week. Follow our coverage here.