The president was telling his closest aides that he was determined to beat his rival Joe Biden in the TV ratings. He was requesting daily ratings for the Democratic National Convention and insisted that his RNC spectacle would demolish their “pathetic” numbers, according to a senior administration official.
According to initial Nielsen numbers, President Trump’s speech Thursday night drew 14.1 million viewers across the three broadcast networks and three major cable news networks. That is more than three million fewer viewers than the 17.5 million who tuned in to watch Biden’s speech one week earlier.
When those numbers are expanded out across nine broadcast and cable networks, Biden still beat Trump by a fairly wide margin, 23.6 million to 21.6 million.
Biden and the Democrats beat Trump and the Republicans all 4 nights.
On Monday night Michelle Obama beat Trump Jr. and Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) 18.7 million viewers to 15.8 million.
Tuesday, Jill Biden beat First Lady Melania Trump, 18.6 million to 18 million.
Wednesday was bad for VP Pence, who had 15.7 million viewers while Kamala Harris had nearly 6 million more viewers with 21.5 million.
