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Night 1 viewership of Republican convention down 13% from first night of DNC

25 August 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Roughly 17 million people watched the first night of the Republican National Convention on television during the primary speech hours between 10 p.m.-11 p.m. EST Monday night, according to Nielsen ratings.

Why it matters: That's down more than 26% from the number of TV viewers for the first night of the 2016 RNC. It's also 13% lower than the number of TV viewers who watched the first night of the Democratic National Convention last week.

The ratings drop at both the DNC and RNC is likely attributable to the fact that both conventions were mostly pre-taped, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and fewer people watch live television now.

  • About 15% fewer Americans subscribe to pay-TV now than in 2016.
  • More Americans rely on digital streaming platforms and social media to get their news and entertainment today than ever before.

By the numbers: Fox News beat all other cable and broadcast networks when it came to total viewership Monday night, with over 7 million viewers.

  • That's more than the 5.1 million total audience members than MSNBC saw on the first night of the DNC.
  • Fox News led all three cable networks in viewership among adults ages 25–54 — a lucrative advertising demographic — followed by CNN and then MSNBC.
  • CNN brought in the second-highest number of total viewers with roughly 2 million, followed by ABC, MSNBC, NBC and CBS.

Be smart: These figures don't take into account the millions of people who likely watched the convention online and via streaming television.

What's next: Fox News, a conservative-leaning cable news network, is expected to lead in total views for all four nights of the RNC, just as MSNBC, a liberal-leaning cable news network, took the top spot for total views for the entirety of the DNC.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.