DNC Ratings: How Many People Watched Tim Walz’s VP Acceptance Speech?
UPDATE: The fuller tallies indicate that 20.2 million total viewers tuned in for Night Three of the DNC.
PREVIOUSLY: The Democratic National Convention continued to make major headlines on Wednesday (August 21) evening, with standout speeches from party A-listers like former President Bill Clinton, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, House Democrats’ Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Plus, there were grand-scale performances by Stevie Wonder and John Legend, take-notice speeches by Mindy Kaling and Oprah Winfrey, and even an on-stage reunion of the high school football team vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz coached to a championship. Ultimately, though, the entire evening — which was themed “A Fight for Our Freedoms” — was buildup to Governor Walz accepting the party’s nomination for vice president with an emotional speech.
As with the last two nights, DNC Night Three ran late into the evening (at least, for East Coast audiences), but that didn’t stop folks from tuning in.
According to analyst Michael Mulvihill, the overnight ratings for night three show that the DNC received 11.7 million viewers from the 9 p.m. – 11:45 p.m. time frame. That’s a reported 29 percent increase over the RNC’s third night, which netted 9.1 million for the overnights in the 10 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.
This is steady with the overnights numbers of viewers that watched Monday and Tuesday’s primetime events (which tallied 11.4 million on Monday and 11.9 million on Tuesday).
On the first night of the DNC, 20 million people watched the convention, which was capped off by President Joe Biden’s pass-the-torch speech. Then, Tuesday night’s event drew a slightly higher number, with 20.6 million tuning in for the back-to-back key-note speeches by Doug Emhoff and Michelle and Barack Obama.
The DNC will continue on for its last hurrah on Thursday (August 22), with Kamala Harris officially accepting her nomination for the party’s presidential ticket. In keeping with the liveliness of the entire week, there’ll be some major acts joining in, including host Kerry Washington, the Chicks singing the National Anthem, and Pink performing as a lead-in to Harris’ big speech. Other speakers who will take the stage include Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, California Representative Ted Lieu, Governor Roy Cooper, Reverend Al Sharpton, Former Representative Gabby Giffords, Senator Tammy Baldwin, and more. The theme of the evening will be an oft-repeated Harris-Walz campaign phrase, “For the Future.”
DNC speakers tonight:
– Hon. Deb Haaland
– Marcia Fudge
– Sen. Alex Padilla
– Sen. Bob Casey
– Sen. Tammy Baldwin
– Sen. Elizabeth Warren
– Sen. Mark Kelly
– Gov. Maura Healey
– Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
– Gov. Roy Cooper
– Rep. Katherine Clark
– Rep. Adam Kinzinger
– Rep.…— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 22, 2024
This post will be updated when the final numbers for viewership are revealed.
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