Fox News crushed its cable channel rivals with its coverage of the Republican National Convention on Thursday — notching record primetime viewership for former President Donald Trump’s keynote speech, according to ratings figures from Nielsen.
The right-leaning channel drew 10 million viewers during the 10 p.m. hour, when the Republican nominee took the stage in Milwaukee and spoke publicly for the first time since surviving an assassin’s bullet in Pennsylvania last weekend.
Fox’s viewership for Trump’s 92-minutes speech capped the highest-rated single night of convention coverage in cable news history.
The network’s entire primetime block drew an average of 9 million viewers, including 1.6 million in the key 25-54 age demo, Fox said, citing ratings figures from Nielsen.
CNN, meanwhile, drew a fraction of Fox’s audience during Trump’s speech, with just 2.1 million viewers.
It still edged out MSNBC, which garnered 1.2 million viewers in the same time slot, according the Nielsen data.
Left-leaning MSNBC has faced criticism for having its top anchors like Rachel Maddow and Jen Psaki cover the four-day convention from the network’s Manhattan headquarters while using a giant LED screen that made it seem like they were broadcasting from Milwaukee’s Fiserv Arena.
As previously reported by The Post, Trump “tore up” a previous speech written for him and instead opted for his own “personal” speech on the final night of the GOP-fest.
He flew to the convention less than 48 hours after getting shot in the ear during a rally in Butler Township last Saturday.
Fox News’ first night of coverage, highlighted by Trump’s dramatic emergence with a bandaged ear, averaged more than 6.9 million viewers in the 10 p.m. hour.
For comparison, MSNBC and CNN drew 1.3. million and 1.1 million in the same time period, respectively.
The network drew more than 5 million viewers during their 10 p.m. round of coverage on the second night, but that figure zoomed to 7 seven million on the third night — when Ohio Sen. JD Vance accepted the nomination as vice president and addressed the crowd.
This week’s RNC came as President Joe Biden has faced growing calls to step out of the race following a shaky debate performance against Trump late last month and amid intensifying questions about his ability to again defeat the former president in November.
