Ted Johnson 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.Fox News was way ahead of its rivals in coverage during the 10 PM ET hour, with 7.1 million total viewers, followed by CNN with 2.01 million, ABC with 1.98 million, NBC with 1.74 million, MSNBC with 1.6 million and CBS with 1.5 million.