<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Roughly 18.7 million viewers tuned in Monday evening to watch the first hour of the 2020 Democratic National Convention. </span></p>
<p>This is a 28% drop compared to the 2016, when more than 25 million viewers watched the convention&#8217;s opening night.</p>
<p class="p1">The sharp drop in viewership &#8211; which doesn&#8217;t include streaming services or mobile devices &#8211; has largely been attributed to the way the event was held.</p>
<p>The event was essentially a telethon, with featured speakers delivering their talks remotely. This removed much of the excitement typically attributed to conventions.</p>
<p>Other factors affecting viewership include the lack of speculation regarding the DNC&#8217;s nominee and the simultaneous broadcasting of delayed sporting events.</p>
<p>MSNBC attracted the most viewers on Monday night with 5.1 million followed by CNN with 4.8 million, <span class="s1">ABC with 2.4 million, NBC with 2.3 million, <em>Fox News</em> with 2.1 million, and CBS with 2 million.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">As always, older Americans were more likely to watch the convention than younger Americans.</span></p>
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<p>In an op-ed for the<em> Washington Post</em>, radio host Hugh Hewitt urged the RNC to take note of the DNC&#8217;s failure and to start brainstorming on how to make the Republican convention more interesting.</p>
<p>&#8220;Republicans should learn from the Democrats&#8217; fiasco and switch it up quickly for their convention next week. The best choice is 20 hours of President Trump interviews with 20 different interlocutors. He&#8217;s still the best interview in America,&#8221; writes Hewitt. &#8220;Trump knows TV. That&#8217;s why he won the 2016 debates &#8211; all of them. His inner programmer knows he doesn&#8217;t need to share the stage. Sure, put the candidates in key Senate races in prime time for 15 minutes, but just because the Democrats jumped off a ratings cliff doesn&#8217;t mean the GOP has to follow them.&#8221;</p>