Donald Trump speech beats Hillary Clinton in TV viewers

NEW YORK — Donald Trump pulled off the upset — at least in television popularity.

Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was seen by 29.8 million people on the commercial networks, the Nielsen company said Friday. That fell short of the 32.2 million people who watched Trump speak to the Republicans a week before.

Trump, who used to carefully watch television ratings during his days as star of “The Apprentice,” immediately boasted about the victory during a campaign appearance Friday in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

“We beat her by millions on television. Millions!” he said. “Honestly, the numbers were incredible.”

Although Trump has been a proven ratings draw throughout his campaign, the Democratic convention had proven more popular with viewers than the Republicans for its first three nights. Stars like Alicia Keys, Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz and Paul Simon performed for the Democrats, and President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama and former President Bill Clinton showed off their oratorical skills.

Meanwhile, star power was much dimmer at the Republican meeting. One night, the convention even ended 15 minutes earlier than planned, leaving television networks scrambling to fill time.

But viewers turned up to hear Trump: his audience was watched by 9 million more people than it was for any other night of the Republican convention, Nielsen said. Meanwhile, the Democrats actually had slightly more viewers for the first night of its convention than it did for the nominee’s speech, typically the highest-rated night of convention coverage.

Four years ago, the audience for Obama’s acceptance speech was 35.7 million, while 30.2 million saw Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Nielsen’s count did not include PBS’ commercial-free coverage, which made the margin closer. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by her running mate, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., former President Bill Clinton,

Andrew Harnik / The Associated Press and Kaine’s wife Anne Holton, gives a thumbs up as she takes the podium to speak at a rally at McGonigle Hall at Temple University in Philadelphia on Friday.