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Fox News Didn’t See a Ratings Bump During Trump’s Republican Convention Speech

A typical prime-time audience on Fox News tuned in for an atypical presidential speech.

Fox News Didn’t See a Ratings Bump During Trump’s Republican Convention Speech
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President Trump has long been a marquee draw on television, with Fox News viewers in particular often showing up in droves to watch his fiery and grievance-filled speeches.

But the president’s 105-minute stemwinder on Wednesday in Dallas, at an unusual midterm convention meant to stoke Republican enthusiasm before November, did not appear to generate the usual Trump Bump.

An average of 2.5 million people tuned in to watch Mr. Trump between 9 and 11 p.m. Eastern on Fox News, one of the few major TV networks that aired his remarks in full. It was more or less an average prime-time audience for Fox News, based on the most recent quarterly statistics.

The Fox News audience also dipped below the usual viewership for “Hannity” and “Gutfeld!,” the programs that regularly air during that time slot, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen.

Mr. Trump had faced some stiff competition: the first game of the National Football League season, which aired against his speech on NBC. Last year, more than 20 million people watched the opener. NBC said that Nielsen ratings for Wednesday’s telecast, a Super Bowl rematch between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, would not be available until next week.

Mr. Trump’s speech was also available to watch on countless streaming services and digital outlets, where many Americans now consume their news. Viewership figures for those digital platforms are difficult to accurately track.

Traditional TV viewers who wanted to watch Mr. Trump on Wednesday had fewer options to follow along live. ABC, CBS and NBC did not pre-empt weeknight programming for Mr. Trump. CNN aired less than 15 minutes of his remarks, while MS NOW occasionally ran a split screen. C-SPAN took the speech in full, but Nielsen does not measure its viewership.

Mr. Trump was expected to speak again in Dallas on Thursday. Another N.F.L. game will be streaming on Netflix.

Michael M. Grynbaum writes about the intersection of media, politics and culture. He has been a media correspondent at The Times since 2016.
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