GOP Convention Drawing Far Fewer Viewers Than Dems

Audience numbers for the Republican National Convention are drastically trailing those enjoyed by the Democrats just last week.

According to the Nielsen ratings, 14.2 million people viewed the second day (technically the first) of the GOP convention -- a full 4.3 million less than watched the Democrats last Tuesday. The majority of viewers were 55 years or older, while more women (11.2 million) than men (9.5 million) tuned in to watch President Bush, former Sen. Fred Thompson and Sen. Joseph Lieberman give their speeches.

Certainly there are logical explanations for the disparate numbers. Hillary Clinton spoke on the second night in Denver, creating inherent drama. And because the GOP was forced to push back day one of their convention, they may have, in the end, lost some viewers. (Democrats had higher numbers on their second day than on the first).

But there is also, clearly, an enthusiasm gap at play. And voters, including Republicans, simply aren't as interested. The second day of the GOP convention in 2004, for instance, had 600,000 more viewers than last night.

Comments

[athenasword]

I was wondering about the numbers. I have a feeling that people tuned in to Pali'n because they were curious. I'll be watching to see how many (how few) people watched McCane... Clearly there is a lack of enthusiasm. Hope that lasts till Nov.

[booker52]

Will be interesting tonight to see the rating on friday. Obama pulled 38 million, lets see if McCain can do the same.

[imfedup]

I watched the first night on C-SPAN, and I could have sworn they were piping in recorded cheers to augment the audience. There was one guy's voice that sounded like a wounded bull moose, and you heard it over and over in just the same way. Did anyone else notice this?

[sacrebleu]

I caught last night's hate fest on PBS and noticed that too. I thought maybe some of the audience members were mic'd to pump up the audio.

[athenasword]

That is not out of the question... after all, they fabricated their own "handmade signs". (can't wait till that hits the MsM in a big way, like the fake Chinese child singer)

[GabrielXL]

"Forced to push back day one"!!!! How about decided to push back day one in order to try and score some cheap political points in Louisiana?

[JonW]

I think your numbers of viewers for the Repub convention are way too high. Anyway why would anyone watch this gang of lightweight gonzos perform? Curiosity at best.

[mjtaylor22]

Oh sure Palin, was sooooo inspirational to the average working american. All those important details of the McSame/Palin agenda. i can see how if we re-elect the same party to the white house, they will take care of everything, keep us safe, keep us, with low energy prices by drilling along the cost, create jobs with tax breaks for companies who move overseas,
keep consumers safe by further underfunding and de regulation of our industries, kinda like the Graham inspired Enron loophole.......
yes I see clearly now.the RNC is the stuff...what did they have 15, 000 in attendance and 2 more watched on TV.
and yes mcsame can find bin laden. he has just been keeping it all in his mindddddddd
Enough of this nonsense, we have real issues to deal with and McSame
will not change a thing..............
WAKE UP AMERICA

[Babysnake]

Gee, not much to base this on, but I hope it suggests a "Landslide in November"!

[sacrebleu]

The low audience numbers are probably attributable to the fact that the major speeches didn't begin until after most Republicans had already changed into fresh Depends, put their dentures in a glass of water, and gone to bed.

[Dee123]

I thought the republican convention last night was very boring and didn't like Sarah's speech at all. All of the applauding bitter comments from the audience, turned me off. I will not watch another night of the convention. I would really like to see the democrats be more aggressive in their attacks.

[ArcherB]

Let me get this straight:
You are didn't like the "applauding bitter comments" from the Republican audience, but you wish the Democrats would be "more aggressive in their attacks"?

Am I the only one who sees the irony here?

[sacrebleu]

yes.

[Ceasar]

Palest convention ever. Where is America? Where is all the color. I love my white folks as much as anything, but seriously, imagine if there were a convention with all Native Americans. Or all Chinese Americans. It would be weird. Just saying. . .

[GLT21]

The camara found 1 black guy but I think he might have been the janitor.

[GabrielXL]

No, it was Lynn Swann. Formerly of the Pittsburgh Steelers and failed politician in his own right.

[LeslieM]

Thanks for noticing this too. For a country rich in diversity, the delegates were not representative of all ethnicities. I was impressed to see people of all ages, though. During the DNC, it was like the United Nations was in session! And everyone got along. If only real life...

[athenasword]

I always think that when I see a Gop gathering. It always feels so fake, plastic, weird and inauthentic.

[tiger2471]

I seriously tried to watch this convention and even though it was rather unbearable I continued watching it while Mitt Romney, Rudy, and then Sarah Palin made derogatory, sarcastic and desperate comments about Barack. I have to be honest, each one of their speeches were HORRIBLE and even though I'm a Democrat, I really tried to be unbiased to what I was hearing, but it was so obvious how much better the speakers and entertainment were at the Democratic convention. When the camera would pan the audience I saw white trash, rednecks, old white women and men, and the token black man or woman every now and then. I couldn't believe how TIRED this convention was and as expected Sarah Palin gave her first REAL speech and the pundits all clamored about how good it was, and I was like; WHAT?! She was repeating old stories that obviously didn't work for Hillary Clinton or Mayflower Hill, but you would think by the reaction from the crowd that Ronald Reagan had just risen from the grave, it was LAUGHABLE to say the least. When the camera panned the crowd at the Democratic convention you saw people of all colors, white, black, hispanic, indian, asian, etc...; but you DID not see this at the Republican convention. Peggy Noonan said it best, it's over!

[pithy]

I watched a rather sad, sort of pathetic spectacle last night. Here were all these thousands of people cheering, waving signs and in some cases actually weeping - for a person about whom they know literally nothing.

It was like a mass delusional episode - here comes the stranger who will energize us, who will make all the lies and smears our party leaders told the world just go away.

Here comes a bright young woman who can erase the thousands of dead Iraqis, the rotting corpses of children killed by our bombs - a woman who will protect life from the momen two cells are joined, even if that joining comes about by the violence of rape or the betrayal of incest.

A woman who has never had a moment when she wasn't "proud" of America - a woman who will help us never have to think, never have to atone, and never have to change.

I, myself, was weeping by the end of it - but for very different reasons.

[WeMustChange]

That is well expected from a realistic point of view. Why would anyone want to watch a repeat of the last 8 years. They offer nothing but continued divisiveness, hatred, war, and bad policies!

[Dantana]

The GOP crowd at the convention is white, white, white, white. And big-time HATERS. The way they mocked Obama's community service was actually shocking. One would have thought it was the Romans and Christians.
Absolutely disgusting.

[JJeff88]

Alternative viewing to avoid RNC Convention (aka "The GOP Hate Fest") TV blockade -

1. Sometimes CSPAN will cover a Democratic "on the campaign trail" stump event.

2. NFL Network (except they keep repeating the same NY Giant v. NE Patriots rebroadcast.

3. Animal Planet would have been great if they had fewer pet shows and more snake shows.

4. The (NYT) Ovation Channel had terrific documentaries on the The Brandenburg Concertos, David Baerenbohm's Mid Eastern Unity concerts and Deep Blues.

5. But the channel deemed "most reliable" for avoiding GOP overload is (fanfare!) The Weather Channel - You can't beat it - you get to see maps without having them followed by Late Breaking Campaign News (usually about something really serious like - "Sarah just left the cafeteria").

Or...you can always take a nice long walk.

[BVictor1]

Animal Planet is almost like watching the RNC.

Hopefully animals won't be offended for me making that comparison.