Democratic National Convention Audience Remains Steady With 20.2M On Night 3, Still Above RNC

The Democratic National Convention maintained a relatively steady audience for the third consecutive night, averaging 20.2M viewers Wednesday across 12 networks, Nielsen reports.

That’s a loss of just a few hundred thousand compared to Night 2’s 20.8M, and it’s still just a bit higher than the 20M for the first night. However, viewership is down compared to the third night of the DNC in 2020, when just over 21M tuned in.

The DNC is still averaging an audience that is much larger than that for the Republican National Convention, which neared 18M viewers on its third night. Night 3 was a significant lift for the RNC, having dropped to 14.8M on Night 2.

Night 3 of the DNC was broadcast live from Chicago, beginning an hour earlier than the previous two nights, airing from about 9:00 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. ET, with speeches from former President Bill Clinton and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.

The 18-34 demo has seen steady growth over each night, inching toward 1M viewers. While it hasn’t hit that threshold yet, there has been a 13.5% lift in that demo’s viewership since Monday.

The 55+ demo remains the largest portion of the audience with 15.2M watching on Night 3. The 35-54 demo saw 3.6M.

Reported networks include ABC, CBS, NBC, Scripps News, CNN, CNNe, FOX Business, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation, PBS.