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Ratings: Night one of RNC delivers big win for Fox News, but ratings are down from 2012

Day One of the Republican National Convention delivered a big ratings win for Fox news Channel, which beat not only its cable news competitors but the broadcast networks as well during the 10 pm hour, averaging 6.35 million viewers, including 1.60 million viewers in the adults 25-54 demo.

CNN also beat the broadcast competition at 10 pm, averaging 3.94 million viewers, including 1.37 million demo viewers. MSNBC averaged 1.99 million viewers at 10 pm including 503,000 demo viewers, while NBC averaged 3.91 million, ABC 3.64 million viewers, and CBS 2.69 million viewers.

For all of primetime, from 8-11 pm, Fox News averaged 5.50 million viewers, CNN 3.60 million viewers and MSNBC 1.93 million viewers.

Compared to the first night of the 2012 RNC, Fox News was down slightly, while CNN saw substantial ratings improvements, and MSNBC more modest ratings gains. All three channels had more viewers for the first night of the 2016 RNC than they had for night one of the 2008 RNC, the last time neither party had an incumbent running.