How many Americans will tune in to the Democratic National Convention? What poll found

Millions of people from across the country plan on tuning in to the Democratic National Convention this week, polling reveals.

Nearly half of American adults, 47%, will watch some or all of the programming, according to a YouGov America poll conducted between Aug. 12 and 15.

The convention kicked off in Chicago Aug. 19, featuring speeches from a slew of Democratic officials, including President Joe Biden, Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

It is scheduled to run through Aug. 22 and will culminate in a speech from Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.

Breakdown of the poll

Just 11% of respondents said they planned on watching almost all of the convention, according to the poll, which sampled 1,091 U.S. adults and has a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

An additional 17% said they aim to watch some of the programming, and 19% said they plan to watch highlights or clips.

Fifteen percent of respondents said they would only watch or read news coverage that analyzes the convention. Meanwhile, more than one-third of respondents, 38%, don’t intend to watch any of it.

Predictably, Democrats were more likely to say they would tune in to the marquee event than Republicans and independents.

Twenty-three percent of Democrats said they plan on watching it almost in its entirety, while just 6% of Republicans and 4% of independents said the same.

And nearly half of Republicans and independents — 47% and 46%, respectively — said they won’t watch at all, compared to 21% of Democrats.

Similar shares of respondents said they watched the Republican National Convention, which was held in Milwaukee in mid-July, according to the poll.

Forty-eight percent said they watched some or all of the programming. That included 10% who watched almost all of it, 16% who watched some and 22% who watched highlights or clips.

Fourteen percent of respondents, meanwhile, said they only watched or read news stories analyzing the convention, and 38% said they didn’t watch any of it.

In contrast to the DNC, it was largely Republicans who tuned in to the RNC. Eighteen percent of GOP respondents said they watched almost all of it, while just 6% of Democrats and 8% of independents said the same.

The GOP convention, which featured speeches from former President Donald Trump, his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance and other Republican officials, received mixed reactions from respondents.

Of those who watched or saw coverage of the RNC, 27% said it was excellent and 22% said it was good, while 16% rated it as fair and 26% said it was poor.

A majority of Republicans, 51%, labeled it as excellent, while 50% of Democrats said it was poor.

First night viewership

While the poll found similar shares of interest in the two conventions, the DNC received 21% more viewers on its first night compared to the first night of the RNC, according to Michael Mulvihill, president of insights and analytics at the Fox Corporation.

The poll comes as both parties and presidential campaigns are gearing up for the final stretch of the race, with the election now less than three months away.

Currently, Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in many nationwide and battleground state polls.

This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 11:49 AM with the headline "How many Americans will tune in to the Democratic National Convention? What poll found."