--- title: Democratic Convention Beats Republicans in Ratings description: With the first night of their convention behind them, Democrats are, thus far, winning the convention ratings war against Republicans canonical: https://time.com/4424344/democratic-convention-ratings-republican-convention/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-26T17:30:46.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:33:33.268Z article:section: Politics og:title: Democratic Convention Beats Republicans in the Ratings on First Night og:description: About 10.6 million Americans tuned in to hear Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders og:url: https://time.com/4424344/democratic-convention-ratings-republican-convention/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58dea250b1be3864/69889f740b72e3444e6ea618/democratic-convention-ratings.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Democratic Convention Beats Republicans in the Ratings on First Night twitter:description: About 10.6 million Americans tuned in to hear Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58dea250b1be3864/69889f740b72e3444e6ea618/democratic-convention-ratings.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Democratic Convention Beats Republicans in the Ratings on First Night  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 26, 2016 5:30 PM CUT  First Lady Michelle Obama speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Penn., on July 26. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Penn., on July 26.Ida Mae Astute—ABC/ Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 26, 2016 5:30 PM CUT With the [first night of their convention](http://time.com/4423241/dnc-democratic-national-convention/ "undefined") behind them, Democrats are, thus far, [winning the convention ratings war](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-television-idUSKCN10623E?utm%5Fcampaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm%5Fcontent=5797913504d30171f4691bbe&utm%5Fmedium=trueAnthem&utm%5Fsource=twitter "undefined") against Republicans. About 10.6 million Americans watched the convention from 10 to 11 p.m. on Monday, [Reuters reported](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-television-idUSKCN10623E?utm%5Fcampaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm%5Fcontent=5797913504d30171f4691bbe&utm%5Fmedium=trueAnthem&utm%5Fsource=twitter "undefined"), citing early data from ABC, NBC and CBS. [First Lady Michelle Obama](http://motto.time.com/4423727/michelle-obama-dnc-convention-speech-quotes/ "undefined"), Massachusetts Sen. [Elizabeth Warren](http://time.com/4423232/democratic-convention-elizabeth-warren-america/ "undefined") and former Democratic candidate [Bernie Sanders](http://time.com/4421574/democratic-convention-bernie-sanders-speech-transcript/ "undefined") all spoke during that block. By comparison, about 10.1 million Americans tuned in to watch the 10 to 11 p.m. hour of the [Republican National Convention](http://time.com/4418621/donald-trump-republican-convention-speech/ "undefined") on its first night, when Republican nominee Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump, [addressed the crowd](http://time.com/4415511/melania-trump-plagiarized-speech-responses/ "undefined"). In general, the Democratic convention drew more nightly viewers than the Republican convention in 2012 as well, when President Barack Obama was running against Republican Mitt Romney, Reuters reported. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4424344/democratic-convention-ratings-republican-convention/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4424344/democratic-convention-ratings-republican-convention/"},"headline":"Democratic Convention Beats Republicans in the Ratings on First Night","datePublished":"2016-07-26T17:30:46.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:33:33.268Z","description":"About 10.6 million Americans tuned in to hear Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders","url":"https://time.com/4424344/democratic-convention-ratings-republican-convention/","keywords":["Democratic National Convention","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election topic","Donald Trump","Republican National Convention"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58dea250b1be3864/69889f740b72e3444e6ea618/democratic-convention-ratings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58dea250b1be3864/69889f740b72e3444e6ea618/democratic-convention-ratings.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA","caption":"FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA","creditText":"Ida Mae Astute—ABC/ Getty Images","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/democratic-national-convention/","name":"Democratic National Convention"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4424344/democratic-convention-ratings-republican-convention/","name":"Democratic Convention Beats Republicans in the Ratings on First Night"}}]}] ```