DNC Ratings: How Many People Watched Michelle & Barack Obama’s Speeches?

UPDATE (8/21 at 6 p.m. ET): Tuesday’s DNC audience viewership enjoyed a slight bump from Monday’s broadcast, with 20.6 million tuning in across the Nielsen-measured networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Scripps News, CNN, CNNe, FOX Business, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS (per Variety).

PREVIOUSLY (8/21 at 12:20 p.m. ET): The Democratic National Convention on Tuesday featured a pair of barn-burner speeches from former first lady Michelle Obama and former President Barack Obama.

The two closed out a day of excitement at Chicago’s United Center, which also included a very meme-able (and playlist-worthy) roll call and additional speeches by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, Senator s Chuck Schumer, Tammy Duckworth, and Bernie Sanders, several Republicans who’ve pledged their support to Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, to name a few. 

The Obamas were the main event of the evening, which was themed “A Bold Vision for America’s Future,” and they brought all of the intensity and energy they were expected to. Though their speeches didn’t go as far into the night as Joe Biden’s did on Monday, they were still taking the stage past a lot of Americans’ (particularly East Coasters’) bedtimes.

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So how many people stayed up to see the Obamas’ final act of the evening?

According to analyst Michael Mulvihill, the overnight ratings for night two, from seven combined networks, indicate the DNC had 11.9 million viewers for the 10 p.m. – 11:45 p.m. ET timeline. This compared to the RNC’s second night — which had 7.7 million for the 10 p.m. – 11:15 p.m. ET timeslot — is a 55% increase.

This is an even more drastic difference than night one, which featured a 21% increase of DNC watchers over the RNC’s viewership.

This post will be updated when the final numbers for viewership are revealed.