Unconventional year for political conventions
“In a normal election year, the parties’ political conventions represent the highest point of the year except for election night itself. This year, well, things aren’t looking so exciting . ... ‘America’s Got Talent’ drew more viewers than the second night of the Democratic National Convention . ... Republicans will have to wonder whether any more will watch theirs. And that’s not all because of party politics. The COVID-19 pandemic, which has been handled to no great effect by many governments all over the world, suggests that we’ve been putting too much faith in government as a tool to solve our problems. That could be part of the reason why so many people have tuned out on this election. Another might be that we’ve heard most of this before. Joe Biden, after all, has been in politics for half a century. The challenge for the Republicans will be to offer something interesting enough to hold Americans’ attention — if they bother to tune in.”
Hugh Hewitt, The Washington Post:
“Monday night’s Republican National Convention was a masterpiece of messaging. If past is prologue, President Donald Trump will continue his march and add to his momentum over the next three nights this week after sustaining no damage through four days of Democrat dog-piling last week. ... The videos, narrated by the estimable Jon Voight, made powerful points about the Democrats’ lurch to the left compared, crucially, with the ‘Promises made — Promises kept’ record of the president . ... Trump knows television, and Monday night that showed.”
Ted Johnson, Deadline:
“The first night of the Republican National Convention drew 15.8 million viewers across six networks, a significant falloff from the 18.7 million who tuned in to the Democratic National Convention’s debut evening . ... Viewership number also is a drop of about 30% from the viewers who tuned in to the first night of the Republican convention in 2016. The figures do not include digital streaming, which has grown substantially in the past four years . ... The coverage of the convention drew a rare point of praise from President Trump, who wrote on Twitter on Tuesday morning, ‘Very appreciative that @CNN covered the vast majority of the Republican Convention last night. That was really good for CNN, while at the same time being good for our Country. Thank you!’ Of the six networks, CNN provided the most uninterrupted carriage of the proceedings through its 2 1/2 hours.”