Biden beats Trump in TV ratings war after candidates slammed each other in respective party convention speeches
Both the major parties have completed their national conventions in the run-up to the 2020 presidential elections but Democratic nominee Joe Biden has done better than incumbent Donald Trump in terms of television viewership of their respective nomination-acceptance speeches.
Nielsen reported while 24.6 million people saw Biden’s speech on the concluding day of the Democratic National Convention on August 20, it was 23.8 million in the case of Trump a week later. Early numbers on Friday, August 28, showed a bigger difference of two million but the final numbers showed a lesser gap. The two candidates slammed each other while delivering their respective acceptance speeches on the final day of both conventions.
The number is calculated on the basis of at least 12 cable and broadcast networks and excludes those who watch online.
Trump tweeted about his ratings on Friday morning, saying: “Great Ratings & Reviews Last Night. Thank you!” but neither gave any reaction after the numbers showed him trailing nor fielded questions from the reporters in the Oval Office.
Biden campaign glad about TV rating war outcome
The Biden campaign, on the other hand, was ecstatic with the ratings. The former vice president’s National Press Secretary TJ Ducklo posted a couple of tweets over the rating war results, asking whether President Trump really cares about his TV ratings in one. He tagged another top Biden adviser Andrew Bates while putting across the question while responding to a tweet from Fox Sports' strategist Micahel Mulvihill acknowledging Biden's 'victory'.
Huh! @AndrewBatesNC I always forget, does @realDonaldTrump care about his television ratings? Or is that not something he cares about? Like, do you think it’ll trigger him that @JoeBiden’s speech got way bigger ratings than his did? https://t.co/tddzWrXkN8
— TJ Ducklo (@TDucklo) August 28, 2020
In another, he hailed Biden’s ‘win’ to say: “Turns out Americans aren’t really into the dark and dystopian view of the country that Donald Trump is presiding over as president.”
Turns out Americans aren’t really into the dark and dystopian view of the country that Donald Trump is presiding over as president.
— TJ Ducklo (@TDucklo) August 28, 2020
Because as @JoeBiden said last week: “Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark.” https://t.co/c7ZImz94pR
Both Biden & Trump have targeted each other
The settings of the two presidential candidates’ nomination speeches were different even though they both ended with fireworks. While Biden was in a darkened room with a few reporters witnessing him delivering his 25-minute address from his residence in Wilmington, Delaware, Trump was speaking to an audience of around 1,500 supporters who were not taking care of the social-distancing protocols in the times of the coronavirus pandemic. The president’s speech went on for 70 minutes and he took Biden’s name more than 40 times during that! The Democrat also criticized the incumbent’s way of running the administration but never mentioned his name.
In his hard-hitting speech last week, Biden vowed to put an end to America’s era of “darkness” to which Trump said while the Democrat saw darkness, he saw America’s greatness. The president hit back at his opponent once again on the issue during his acceptance speech at the GOP national convention, saying the US is not a country “cloaked in darkness” but rather is the “torch that enlightens the entire world”.
Overall, too, the Democrats had the last laugh as their convention was rated higher than the other party when the audience for all the four days of the events were tallied up. For the Biden campaign, this will serve as an added incentive especially after the pre-poll surveys that show the former veep leading the incumbent in a number of key states.
However, Trump could still find some solace in the fact that Fox News, the network he trusts the most, recorded the biggest audience on Thursday night, with more than nine million viewers tuning in to see the former accepting his nomination. In comparison, no other network got more than 2.6 million viewers. More people saw Fox on Thursday night than those who turned on CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and NBC combined. The channel also witnessed a massive interaction on its social media platforms on the night, according to Socialbakers.