• by Wayne Friedman , July 22, 2016

As expected, overall TV viewership climbed for the last night of the Republican National Convention -- with Fox News Channel dominating all networks. CNN and MSNBC also posted record gains.

With Donald Trump’s 75-minute acceptance speech as the Republican candidate for president, Fox News posted its strongest results for the four-day event -- averaging 7.2 million overall viewers for the 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. prime-time period and 1.73 million 25-54 viewers, the key viewing group for TV news advertisers.
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CNN was next with 4.3 million total average viewers and 1.38 million 25-54 viewers. MSNBC had 2.5 million viewers and 716,000 25-54 viewers.

CNN posted its best-ever results for any GOP convention, besting its 4.1 million mark in for Day Two of the 2008 event. MSNBC scored its best GOP single-day results since 2004.

Broadcast network coverage -- from 10 p.m. to 11:45 p.m. -- didn’t change much for NBC. But there were higher totals for ABC and CBS on the last night.

NBC came in at 4.6 million total viewers and 1.77 million 25-54 viewers, followed by ABC with 3.9 million total viewers and 1.4 million 25-54 viewers, and CBS at 3.8 million and 1.2 million 25-54 viewers.

For the four-day period, NBC pulled in 4.6 million viewers and 1.7 million 25-54 viewers; ABC scored 3.1 million overall viewers and 1.1 million 25-54 viewers; and CBS had 3 million overall viewers and 916,000 25-54 viewers.