Rebecca Presents The Daily, Monthly: August 2020 Edition: Democratic and Republican Conventions and NBA Games Dominate Cable, CBS Dominates as Big Brother Returns

It's a bit of a delayed update, but it's time for my monthly ratings update The Daily, Monthly. Here, I take a look at what won each night in the previous month, painting a picture of what ratings were like during the month and which networks and shows were thriving (and which aren't). August was a big month for live events, and also featured the return of a reliable summer staple. Keep reading to see how the month shook out.

Breaking Down the Ratings of the 2020 Republican National Convention

One week after the Democrats held their convention virtually, the Republicans took a different approach as they renominated Donald Trump and Mike Pence, with most of their speakers appearing in-person in Washington DC, culminating in a speech at the White House by the President himself. I broke down the ratings for the 2020 Democratic Convention last week, and you can keep reading to see how things played out in the ratings department for the RNC.

Prime Time Cable News Ratings August 24 - August 27: President Trump’s Speech Fails To Match Former Vice President Biden’s In Viewers And The Most-Coveted Demographic

Thursday Cable Ratings 8/27/20: Republican National Convention Jumps for Trump Speech, Tacoma FD and Lost Resort Rise

Below are the top 25 programs on cable on Thursday, 8/28/20. Items of note include the final night of the Republican National Convention on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN, Tacoma FD on TruTV, and Cannonball on USA.
(Note: Click the names of the shows written in purple or blue to be taken to their pages in the TV Ratings Guide Cable Database.)

Thursday TV Ratings 8/27/20: Republican National Convention Ends with Week-Long High, Love Island Rises Behind Big Brother (UPDATED)

The 2020 Republican National Convention came to a close last night, featuring an acceptance speech from President Donald Trump, as well as speeches by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Housing Secretary Ben Carson, and WH Senior Advisor and the First Daughter, Ivanka Trump.

Despite a high-profile speech by the President, RNC coverage was down on CBS, hitting a 0.2 and  tying Monday and Tuesday's RNC results (both of those nights had Love Island as a lead-in, so perhaps there's a theme there). Big Brother kicked off the night for CBS, down a tenth to 1.0, in-line with most of its results this season. The first post-BB episode of Love Island was up a tenth to a 0.4, tying the premiere.

ABC had more repeats of Holey Moley and To Tell The Truth. The TTTT encore was down from last week to a 0.4, and Holey Moley was steady at 0.4. Speaking of 0.4s, that's how their Republican Convention coverage rated, up a notch from Wednesday's 0.3 and in-line with last week's DNC coverage which featured Joe Biden's speech.

NBC kicked their night off with a repeat of The Wall at 0.4, followed by a Law & Order: SVU encore at 0.3. Republican Convention coverage was also at 0.3, steady both with Wednesday's RNC rating and last Thursday's DNC rating.

Fox had two hours of MasterChef again, but nobody really cared with a 0.2 and weak enough ratings to put Fox in dead-last in the viewer race for the night.

The CW had another unusually-strong Mysteries Decoded encore at 8, followed by a Penn & Teller: Fool Us encore at the typical CW 0.1.

Finals Update: Republican National Convention coverage on NBC (+0.1) and CBS (+0.1) adjusted up. Mysteries Decoded (-0.1) adjusted down.