MSNBC again beat its cable news rivals in primetime ratings on the second night of the Democratic National Convention, but more people tuned into Michelle Obama's big night Tuesday than Bill Clinton's on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, MSNBC had 3.31 million total viewers and 1 million viewers in the 25-54 demographic most valued by news advertisers. Both CBS, with 3.9 million total DNC viewers, and ABC, with 3.5 million total viewers, averaged bigger numbers for their convention coverage, which started at 10 p.m. (NBC ran an NFL game.)
On Tuesday, MSNBC was second only to NBC among all networks in the demo and total viewers in its convention ratings. It earned 4.1 million total viewers, 1.4 million of them in the key demo.
CNN was close behind MSNBC in primetime Wednesday, as it was Tuesday. It had 2.9 million total viewers, 962,000 of them in the demo. Fox News had 2.7 million viewers, 629,000 of them in the demo.
On Tuesday, CNN had 3.9 million total viewers, 1.4 million of them in the demo, and Fox News had 2.4 million total viewers, 550,000 of them in-demo.
One curiosity: CNN beat MSNBC Wednesday night in the key demo during the night's main speeches, including Clinton's. His long remarks stretched the prime period for speeches to 90 minutes, from 10 to 11:30.
In that time, MSNBC had 4.5 million total viewers, 1.5 million of them in the key demo. CNN had 4.2 million, 1.6 million of them in the key demo.
Fox News had 3 million between 10 and 11:30, 831,000 of them in the key demo.
