Viewership of Trump's acceptance speech peaked as he recalled moments before attempted assassination

By 
 July 21, 2024

Former President Donald Trump gave the audience at the Republican convention a heartfelt, unbelievable closing speech. 

According to the Washington Examiner, the former president drew millions of eyeballs, and the amount of eyeballs peaked when he began telling the story of his perspective of the attempted assassination.

Before telling the story, Trump told the audience that he would recall the events from his perspective one time and one time only, swearing to never speak of it again.

Viewer numbers were massive as he began, drawing some 25 million viewers at the moment he started his story.

Widely viewed

Trump was already expected to draw heavy viewership just because of his popularity, but the attempt on his life clearly brought in many more who have united with the former president for the betterment of the country.

The former president reportedly delivered the longest acceptance speech in history, clocking some 90 minutes. Viewership began to taper off toward the end of his speech, according to the outlet.

Trump drew more viewers for his acceptance speech than he did in 2020, but much less than he did in 2016.

The Examiner noted:

In 2016, when Trump became the Republican nominee for the first of three campaigns, 32.2 million people watched his acceptance speech. In 2020, 23.8 million people tuned into Trumps’ acceptance speech, which is the lowest RNC viewership since 2008.

Not surprisingly, Fox News drew the lion's share of viewers for his acceptance speech.

The outlet added:

Most viewers watched the speech and the entire convention on Fox News. The network set a record with the most people watching a single cable channel during a convention on Thursday night during Trump’s speech, garnering 10.4 million viewers at its peak. CNN drew in 2.2 million viewers and MSNBC drew in 1.3 million viewers during the speech.

Social media reacts

Millions also watched Trump deliver the speech through social media, and reactions to it were plentiful.

"Epic! The man is an absolute legend," one X user wrote.

Another X user wrote, "Dear God on Heaven, protect him and his family; and please, dear God, bring us all together and let him win."

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