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Ratings tick up to 21.7M for DNC’s third night featuring Obama, Harris

by Joe Concha - 08/21/20 11:04 AM ET

The Democratic National Convention drew 21.7 million viewers on Wednesday night, according to preliminary data from Nielsen Media Research, marking a 12 percent drop from the 2016 DNC but an increase from the 18.4 million viewer average of Monday and Tuesday.

MSNBC easily drew the most viewers in the 10 p.m. hour that featured vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), drawing 6.5 million viewers and marking the third straight night the network was the most-watched of the six networks covering the event. Overall, MSNBC is enjoying its highest-rated year in its 24-year history.

Ratings for Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s Thursday night acceptance speech will be available later Friday.

The former vice president’s 24-minute speech was widely praised, including by Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, who called it “enormously effective” and CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who labeled it “one of the best, if not the best, of his career.”

The Republican National Convention will be held next week at the White House, with many speeches expected to be held outside on the South Lawn or Rose Garden.

“It’s a place that makes me feel good, it makes the country feel good,” Trump told the New York Post about holding the convention at the White House.

“We’d do it possibly outside on one of the lawns. We have various lawns, so we could have it outside in terms of the China virus,” he continued, in reference to coronavirus social distancing measures.

“We could have quite a group of people. It’s very big, a very big lawn. We could have a big group of people,” he said when asked if he’d formally accept the Republican nomination for president with a crowd of supporters.

The GOP convention begins on Monday.

Tags 2020 conventions 2020 Democratic convention 2020 republican convention Chris Wallace Jake Tapper Joe Biden ratings