Republican National Convention vies with a hurricane, sports protests, #NationalDogDay for Americans' attention

Eric Trump speaks at the second night of the convention.

(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)

published 27 August 2020

Wednesday marked the third night of the Republican National Convention, but you wouldn't have known it by glancing at social media. "As of Wednesday night, no RNC-related topics showed up in Twitter's trending tab or in Google's real-time search trends," NBC News reports.

Instead, Americans were distracted by news of Hurricane Laura, the NBA boycott, and the arrest of the shooting suspect in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Even #NationalDogDay and Married at First Sight were commanding more attention when the Republican convention began at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The RNC had a rocky start to its convention, with viewership down 26 percent its first night from the first night of the 2016 RNC; it was also 13 percent lower than viewership of the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Axios reports. Viewership bumped up by 2 million on the RNC's second night, with its marquee speech by first lady Melania Trump, ultimately totaling 19.4 million viewers across 11 networks.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.