DNC Ratings Top RNC Again On Day 2 With Bill Clinton Speech; ABC & CBS Down From 2012
The second day of the 2016 Democratic National Convention was much different than four years ago – at least if you’re NBC. Back on September 5, 2012, the Comcast-owned network decided not to broadcast Bill Clinton and other speakers in the 10 PM primetime slot and go with the opening game of the NFL season.
With the DNC nearly six weeks earlier this year and running for four days not three, NBC was all over Clinton’s speech last night. This time he got the delegates fired up not for a re-election-seeking Barack Obama but for his wife Hillary Clinton.
In early numbers and with the best ratings result so far this convention season, NBC’s DNC Day 2 coverage topped the Big 3 with a 1.3/5, compared to ABC’s 0.7/3 and CBS’ 0.4/2 among adults 18-49. Although up 14% in early numbers from the second day of the GOP convention last week, the combined demo result of 2.4 is down a tenth from Monday’s DNC Day 1 when First Lady Michelle Obama, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke.
With adjustments expected later in the key demo, NBC’s Tuesday DNC coverage was up 18% in early numbers over the second night of the RNC on July 19 and 30% from the final rating. Party-to-party, ABC had the biggest rise with a 40% jump over Day 2 of the RNC, while CBS was down a tenth. For ABC and CBS, last night was down 36% and 67%, respectively, in 18-49s from that Wednesday night in September four years ago when Bill Clinton also spoke.
NBC was also tops in the news demo of adults 25-54 with a 1.7 compared to the combined 1.6 of CBS and ABC. Overall, NBC won Tuesday with a 1.9/7 rating and 8.58 million total viewers, thanks also to a live America’s Got Talent (2.2/9) that was even with last week’s fast affiliates and down a tenth from the final rating.
Down 32% from Monday’s regular The Bachelorette, ABC had The Bachelorette: Men Tell All (1.3/5) special besides its convention coverage. CBS’ only original of last night was Zoo (0.8/9), which was up a tenth from last week.
With Whose Line Is It Anyway? bringing in an average of 0.4/1, the debut of MADtv (0.3/1) on the CW was an OK summer debut. The Season 3 finale of Hotel Hell (0.9/4) was even with last week, as was lead-out Coupled (0.5/2).
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