Fewer people watched opening night of Democratic convention compared to 2016

Television viewership for Monday’s opening night of the virtual Democratic National Convention was down nearly 30 percent compared to four years ago.

Preliminary figures from Nielsen Media Research found that 18.6 million Americans tuned in, though the Biden campaign said digital views were up compared to 2016, when fewer than 26 million watched.

MSNBC drew the biggest TV audience of the cable and broadcast networks, with 5.096 million viewers tuning in from 10 p.m. to 11:15 pm ET. CNN was second with 4.777 million viewers, followed by ABC with 2.442 million, NBC with 2.282 million, Fox News with 2.099 million and CBS with 1.985 million.

The convention’s programming on Monday began at 9 p.m. ET, with the same start time slated for the three remaining nights.

TJ Ducklo, national press secretary for the Biden campaign, tweeted that digital views were up from 2016 and that the campaign is “producing a digital convention, and people are watching.”

NEWS: 28.9 million Americans tuned in to @DemConvention last night across TV & digital platforms, up from 2016 & shattering the previous record for digital streams, which totaled 10.2m even as numbers still come in.

We are producing a digital convention, and people are watching.

— TJ Ducklo (@TDucklo) August 18, 2020

Monday’s events were hosted by “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria, with former first lady Michelle Obama giving the final speech of the evening.

“Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head,” Obama said in her pretaped remarks, which were recorded before presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden named Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate on Aug. 10.

President Trump responded on social media, calling Obama’s speech “divisive.”

“She was over her head, and frankly she should’ve made the speech live, which she didn’t do,” Trump said during a White House event commemorating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage.

The virtual format was panned by some on both the left and the right, with former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson comparing the event to “binge watching a Marriott commercial.”

No I’m sorry but they did not address racism. They showed a lot of beautiful pictures of POC and made references to BLM, but there was not one mention of an actual policy to help end systemic racism. It’s like binge watching a Marriott commercial.

— Marianne Williamson (@marwilliamson) August 18, 2020

Imagine having all the awesome creative talent of Hollywood and the entertainment industry at your fingertips and nonetheless this is the convention you produce

— David Sirota (@davidsirota) August 18, 2020

This feels more like a sad telethon than a rousing call to arms. I get the limitations of the format, but man this is slow so far. Only @RepGwenMoore added 60 seconds of much-needed energy. #DemConvention

— S.E. Cupp (@secupp) August 18, 2020

Former President Clinton, Jill Biden and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) are slated to speak on Tuesday night.