The 2024 Republican National Convention proved to be a fruitful one for Fox News, as the network saw the largest audience in cable news history for such an event.
During former President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday evening, the network averaged an audience of 10.3 million viewers with the help of Fox Business Network’s simulcast. The total evening’s ratings averaged 9.4 million total viewers on Thursday, with 8.8 million coming on Fox News.
In the 10 PM ET window, Fox News saw the highest-rated convention coverage since 1992 with its 11 million viewer average. Additionally, the network’s late-night show, Gutfeld!, saw it’s largest audience in program history Thursday with 3.1 million viewers tuning into the program.
Trump’s Thursday acceptance speech — which took place less than a week after he was shot at a Pennsylvania rally — was the highest-rated program of the year on cable. It topped the June 27th CNN presidential debate featuring Trump and President Joe Biden. Between CNN, HLN, and CNN Espanol, 9.5 million watched the event, while an additional 9.2 million viewed it on Fox News.
During the window that encompassed the bulk of Donald Trump’s Republican National Convention speech (10 PM-12:30 AM), Fox News averaged 9.2 million viewers, outpacing CNN (1.9 million) and MSNBC (1.1 million).
On the network television front, NBC led the ratings with 3.8 million viewers with ABC seeing 2.7 million and CBS earning 1.9 million.
