Harris Outdrew Trump in Acceptance Speeches

Vice President Kamala Harris' nomination acceptance speech to her party's convention on Thursday night drew an average of 28.9 million cable viewers, Nielsen ratings show, edging Donald Trump's audience for his party address last month by about a half-million. Over the four-night runs of the conventions, an average of 3 million more people watched the Democrats than the Republicans—21.8 million to 18.9 million viewers, Politico reports. Among Democratic conventions, this one averaged about 200,000 more viewers than the 2020 version featuring Joe Biden. But it drew 8.2 million fewer than the 2016 convention, when Hillary Clinton's acceptance of her party's presidential nomination attracted 30 million people.

MSNBC led the networks, followed by ABC and CNN, per the Hollywood Reporter. In the 18- to 54-year-old demographic by which TV shows are measured, the convention had 6.7 million viewers. Considering the event as a TV production—it did include Oprah Winfrey, Pink, and other celebrities—critics had a few things to say. Rick Porter wrote in the Reporter that Harris appeared presidential, "adopting the lithe cadences of executive candidates past and present." In the Washington Post, Lili Loofbourow said Harris "was practically surfing on the strength of her rapport with the crowd." The critic called that a big change from Harris' awkward 2020 acceptance speech for the vice presidential nomination in which she "delivered applause lines for which no applause materialized."

Lovia Gyarkye wrote in the Reporter that juxtapositions in the speaker lineup seemed odd: "Members of the Exonerated Five were followed by prosecutors; speeches by survivors of mass shootings came right before those by police sheriffs boasting of larger budgets and safer cities." Hadas Gold wrote for CNN that the production "turned normally staid moments into slickly produced spectacles," including the historically dull roll call that rapper Lil Jon enlivened with music relevant to each state. The appearance of celebrities helped ratings, Gold wrote, as did one nonappearance. Speculation had floushed online that Beyonce would show up to perform "Freedom." That was never planned, Beyonce's publicist announced, but not until 10pm ET. (More Democratic National Convention stories.)