A total of 17 million people watched the mostly virtual Republican National Convention’s first night on Monday, according to Nielsen, fewer than the 19.7 million viewers who watched the first night of the Democratic National Convention.
The 17 million RNC number reflects the audience across 11 TV networks between 10 p.m EDT and 11 p.m. EDT and does not include online and streaming viewers. Fox News had the biggest audience, with 7.1 million viewers.
Ratings for the first night of the virtual Democratic National Convention reflected viewers across 10 U.S. TV networks on Aug. 17.