Newsweek, July 2024
The number of viewers who tuned in to watch the first two nights of the Republican National Convention declined this year compared to 2016, Nielsen data shows. This year’s convention is being held in Milwaukee, where Donald Trump was confirmed as the Republican Party’s official nominee for the 2024 election days after he was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
On the first day of this year’s convention, an estimated 18.13 million viewers tuned in to watch as Trump appeared with a bandaged ear following Saturday’s attempted assassination. An estimated 14.81 million viewers tuned in on the second day. According to Nielsen data, this year’s viewership figures are down from 2016, when 23 million people tuned in to watch the first night of the convention and 19.75 million people tuned in for the second night. Viewership figures in 2020 were limited because of the pandemic.
