GOP convention’s first night draws fewer TV viewers than Democratic kickoff

The Republican National Convention averaged 15.9 million viewers on its opening night, falling short of the 18.7 million who tuned in for the beginning of last week’s Democratic convention, according to Nielsen Media Research figures released Tuesday.

TV viewership on Monday was down 28 percent from the first night of the 2016 GOP convention, the same decline from four years ago for Democrats.

Fox News led all networks on Monday with 7.06 million viewers in the 10 p.m. EDT hour, when former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley (R) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) were among those giving speeches.

CNN was second with 2.009 million viewers, followed by ABC with 1.978 million.

Fox alone beat out combined viewers from CNN, NBC, CBS and ABC.

The figures released by Nielsen do not include livestream data. C-SPAN’s livestream of the first night of the GOP convention attracted nearly 440,000 views, a substantial increase over the 76,000 views for the start of the Democratic convention.

The second night of the Republican convention will feature speeches from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and first lady Melania Trump, as well as President Trump’s son Eric Trump.