--- title: Republican National Convention Ratings Up From 2012 description: The first day of the Republican National Convention saw a rise in ratings compared with the first night of the RNC in 2012 canonical: https://time.com/4413583/republican-national-convention-ratings-up-from-2012-after-first-night/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-19T21:09:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:19.501Z article:section: Politics og:title: Republican Convention Ratings Up From 2012 After First Night og:description: Fox News averaged about 6.35 million viewers og:url: https://time.com/4413583/republican-national-convention-ratings-up-from-2012-after-first-night/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91e6329f45ae3b0c/69889c7e8e060152d3466be1/landon-nordeman-republican-national-convention-rnc-scenes-0718-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIMEPOL RNC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Republican Convention Ratings Up From 2012 After First Night twitter:description: Fox News averaged about 6.35 million viewers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91e6329f45ae3b0c/69889c7e8e060152d3466be1/landon-nordeman-republican-national-convention-rnc-scenes-0718-01.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Republican National Convention Ratings Up From 2012 After First Night ## Video: The Perfect Discomfort of Melania Trump’s Convention Speech [Watch (HLS stream): The Perfect Discomfort of Melania Trump’s Convention Speech](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dBYuDa54.m3u8) (1:57)  _Published 2016-07-19. Melania Trump’s speech lay towards the end of a long evening of the Republican National Convention’s TV broadcast like the pot of gold at the end of—well, not a rainbow. Perhaps a minefield._ by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jul 19, 2016 9:09 PM UTC  Scenes from the floor of the 2016 Republican National Convention on Monday, July 18, 2016, in Cleveland. Scenes from the floor of the 2016 Republican National Convention on Monday, July 18, 2016, in Cleveland.Landon Nordeman for TIME by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Jul 19, 2016 9:09 PM UTC The first day of the Republican National Convention allowed Fox News to beat its cable and broadcast news competitors on Monday night, and saw a rise in ratings compared to the convention four years ago. Fox News averaged about 5.50 million viewers from 8 to 11 p.m. Monday night, including 1.60 viewers who were adults between the ages of 25 and 54 during the 10 p.m. hour, [Politico reported](http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/07/ratings-rnc-night-one-delivers-big-win-for-fox-news-225807). In 2012, when Mitt Romney was the Republican presidential nominee, the network averaged 5.15 million viewers from 8 to 11 p.m. the first night, according to [Adweek](http://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/during-night-one-of-rnc-fox-news-draws-more-viewers-than-any-other-network/144430). The network averaged about 6.35 million viewers during the 10 p.m. hour Monday night, a slight dip from 2012, when Fox News averaged 6.89 million viewers at 10 p.m. Despite the ratings bump, the convention’s first night drew mixed results. A speech by Trump’s wife Melania prompted accusations of plagiarism as critics said it [lifted lines from Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech](http://time.com/4412373/why-the-plagiarism-problem-matters/?xid=homepage). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4413583/republican-national-convention-ratings-up-from-2012-after-first-night/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4413583/republican-national-convention-ratings-up-from-2012-after-first-night/"},"headline":"Republican National Convention Ratings Up From 2012 After First Night","datePublished":"2016-07-19T21:09:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:55:19.501Z","description":"Fox News averaged about 6.35 million viewers","url":"https://time.com/4413583/republican-national-convention-ratings-up-from-2012-after-first-night/","keywords":["Republican National Convention"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91e6329f45ae3b0c/69889c7e8e060152d3466be1/landon-nordeman-republican-national-convention-rnc-scenes-0718-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91e6329f45ae3b0c/69889c7e8e060152d3466be1/landon-nordeman-republican-national-convention-rnc-scenes-0718-01.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"TIMEPOL RNC","caption":"Scenes from the floor of the 2016 Republican National Convention on Monday, July 18, 2016, in Cleveland.","creditText":"Landon Nordeman for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/republican-national-convention/","name":"Republican National Convention"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4413583/republican-national-convention-ratings-up-from-2012-after-first-night/","name":"Republican National Convention Ratings Up From 2012 After First Night"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Perfect Discomfort of Melania Trump’s Convention Speech","description":"Melania Trump’s speech lay towards the end of a long evening of the Republican National Convention’s TV broadcast like the pot of gold at the end of—well, not a rainbow. 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