Trump took to Truth Social on Friday to tell his followers that the RNC Thursday night was the “best and most successful in history,” as the ratings were released on Friday. According to The Hollywood Reporter, while the closing night featuring the former president speak was the most watched by a TV audience this week and a general success, an audience dip on Tuesday led overall numbers to be slightly down on 2020. Thursday’s coverage averaged 25.38 million viewers, the outlet reported, citing Nielsen figures, though the audience peaked at the start of Trump speech at 28.4 million from 10:45 to 11:00 p.m. Overall coverage of the four-day event averaged 19.07 million viewers, just below the 19.39 million average in 2020. Though Monday, Wednesday and Thursday’s audiences rose from the last four years, a 24% dip on Tuesday at 14.81 million ultimately dragged down the numbers. Even Trump’s 2016 speech, which drew 32.2 million viewers, according to Forbes, was still shy of John McCain’s 2008 acceptance speech, which had 38.9 million viewers. Trump’s speech was also the longest acceptance speech since the 1950s, when Eisenhower spoke for an hour, according to Forbes. Trump’s rambler of a speech was most viewed on Fox News which captured 9.21 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
