Palin's Speech Draws 37.2 Million Viewers
GOP VP Nominee's Address Just 1.1 Million Under Obama's Record Convention Audience
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 9/4/2008 5:32:00 PM
Sarah Palin’s address on the third night of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul also played big in Nielsen homes.
The speech by the GOP Vice Presidential nominee pulled in 37.2 million watchers on average in the 10 p.m. hour last night, according to Nielsen Media Research data. That was just 1.2 million fewer viewers than the convention-record 38.4 million that tuned in Barack Obama’s acceptance address on the final night of last week’s Democratic National Convention.
Palin’s address easily topped the 26 million who watched Sen. Hillary Clinton’s speech on the second night of the DNC last week and the 24 million who watched Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden on the corresponding day from Denver last week.
The third day of RNC coverage from the cable news networks and the Big 3 broadcasters attracted a large number of females, some 19.5 million. Palin’s platform garnered 5.2 million more than watched Clinton’s speech on the second day of the DNC from Denver and 6.9 million that saw Biden.
Fox News Channel was once again the leader, averaging 9.21 million viewers on average, well ahead of NBC’s 7.62 million. CNN was third with 6.18 million, besting ABC’s 5.05 million, CBS’s 4.63 million and MSNBC’s 3.69 million.
For Fox News, its second straight RNC victory was the most-viewed convention telecast in its history, and the third best in the network's hisstory, behind President Bush's address about the Iraq war on March 19, 2003 and his debate with John Kerry on Sept. 30, 2004.
