Republican National Convention Ratings: Sarah Palin Speech Draws 37.2 Million Viewers

NEW YORK — Barack Obama apparently isn't the only "rock star" in presidential politics this year.

After days of intense media coverage about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's qualifications, more than 40 million Americans tuned in Wednesday to see for themselves what they thought of her.

The huge audience for Palin's acceptance speech rivaled that for Obama's address at the Democratic National Convention six days earlier, and set a tough standard for the top of her own ticket. John McCain was to accept the GOP presidential nomination on Thursday.

The first two days of the GOP convention essentially served as a build-up for Palin. The Alaska governor hadn't spoken publicly since McCain selected her for the ticket last Friday, as a series of stories circulated questioning whether McCain had properly vetted her.

Her poised speech, primarily going after Obama and touting McCain's case for the presidency, was gushed over by many analysts.

An audience of 37.2 million people watched Palin on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, Nielsen Media Research said Thursday. PBS estimated its audience at 3.9 million, based on a less reliable sample of several big cities. Nielsen does not count the audience for C-SPAN, which also showed the speech.

Last week, Nielsen said 38.4 million people watched Obama speak at a Denver stadium on the six commercial networks, along with BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo _ four networks that didn't cover Palin's speech. PBS added an estimated 4 million to that total.

Nearly 2 million more women were watching Palin than men, Nielsen said.

Viewers were far more interested in Palin than Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden. Biden's speech to Democrats last week was seen by an estimated 24 million people.

The audiences for the Obama and Palin speeches were bigger than the ones this year for the Academy Awards, the finale of "American Idol" or the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing.

Nearly 120 million Americans voted in the 2004 presidential election and numbers could be higher this year because of young and minority voters attracted to Obama, and renewed enthusiasm among Republicans for their ticket.

Fox News Channel led the way Wednesday, with 9.2 million people watching Palin's speech on the cable channel. It was the third-largest audience in its history, behind only President Bush's speech on Iraq in March 2003 and a Bush-Kerry presidential debate in 2004.

For each night of the GOP convention so far, Fox's audience has been bigger than any of the other cable or broadcast networks. That duplicates a feat accomplished at the 2004 Republican convention for Fox, the first time a cable network had outdrawn broadcasters for a major news event.

NBC had 7.7 million viewers for Palin's speech, followed in order by CNN, ABC, CBS and MSNBC, Nielsen said.

Comments

[pixy242a]

If all the viewers of Sarah Palin's speech were Republicans, why did they only contribute 1 million, while Obama got 8 million the next day? Obviously, most viewers were Dems checking out the latest addition to their opponent's ticket, since she was practically plucked from obscurity.

[Seekingknowledge]

I find it rather interesting how "Community" and "Community Activism" were ridiculed at the convention. What is a country but a conglomerate of communities! If there is a deeply rooted problem in this country, one must go to the root (the most basic element)- the Communities--the constituency of the politicians. Often times, the solution lies within one or more of those communities. To Thumb your arrogant nose up at the community of which you claim that you want to represent is unbelievable.

[MissingAmerica]

Circuses always draw a bigger audience than do political conventions.

[artistgirl]

who is the media darling? mccain was the guy for years, read this:

http://www.salon.com/news/1998/06/25newsb.html

nytimes, washpo, wsj ... none of them ran this piece about mccain.

it really shows his stupidity and, in my humble opinion, his elitism.

[Agent420]

How long will it be before McPOWsongbird starts calling Palin the same names he calls his wife?

[shelobo]

Fox Republican biased reporters and Jaw Bumpers'Hannity' and O'Rielly ' should be airing this story....http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/myfox/pages/News/Politics/Detail?contentId=7355987&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.14.1&sflg=1.It's from THEIR site .

[lmt27]

Not all of the 37 million were republicians and not all 37 million are voting that way. Many of us watched to see the spectacle--just like we watched every move of Britney Spears public breakdown-look at all the scandal that lead up to the moment. My problem is that it is being called a speech when it wasn't. It was like a mean girl/bully being given the okay by the principal to verbally beat up on the other students. It really scared me that she looked as if she enjoyed spewing all that hate. It is a sad day in America when this is put on national television and then applauded. I will be glad when this election is over. It is tearing the country apart and not bringing it together.

[Daniboy]

McCain should send her to the college campuses-she will really be able to fire up the students. Also for you Libs information-if Roe-Wade is overturned,abortion will not be illegal--it will go back to each state to decide if they want it or not. Many states will keep it legal.

[Agent420]

And the ones who don't keep it legal will have a rash of women and coat hangers or shady people in alley saying, "Pssst, do you want an abortion?" I remember what it was like before the historic bill was past "giving" women the right to control their own bodies. Let's not go back.

[Daniboy]

Barrack is losing support from the youth-the newness is wearing off and many are figuring out that he is just another inside the beltway Senator. I don't think they'll ever pin the inside the beltway politicion on Palin. Most people right now think of her as one of them.

[maddie0001]

Yupl yup, once the repubs got one it's good to be a rock star.

btw - Is she going to be on the Sunday morning talk shows or will she be hiding in a secure/undisclosed location?

[perk]

Looks like you will not see her on Oprah.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=5736716&page=1

[Daniboy]

Palin may replace the Messiah-she may be the new Messiah. The newness of Barrack is wearing off!

[DickTater]

Oh Hooray!
Her new will wear off too.
But if you're looking for a messiah, you better get there quick! Run don't walk.
B H O has much more substance than anyone in the race. H R C had her own equal level of mojo....but B H O was much more genuine and really embodies change. If all he did was show up at events and go thru the motions, he would be drastic change and acknowledgement.

How do you know if McPOW and Rovee and company are lying? Yeah their lips ARE moving, but if they are mentioning health, economy, reform, fairness, gentleness, compassion, sobriety, restraint, responsibility, oversight, accountability, etc....they're lying. And especially CHANGE. So, nice speeches, all lies. What did Reagan ever really deliver on, except corporate takeover? Buschh the Elder? LeChimp himself? Opposite of what they say to get elected. Irrefutable, down the line evidence everything they say (from the above list - and more) is a lie. Some of their folksy preamble is true. Some of their comments about basically hating blacks and liberals and gays is true.

There is a large swath of america who won't vote for a black president. Another large swath afraid of change. They're just DYING for the republicans to say something they can then hang their hat on (they feel your pain, compassionate conservatism, kinder-gentler, want to restore dignity to the WH, trust me/have a beer with me). And the repubs always deliver on the campaign trail.

[publanski]

Let's see how many show up to hear her speak. I bet the numbers won't even be close to Obama's.

Most people tuned into watch Palin because they were curious. That's the only reason I watched. And I can say that I've seen more than enough of her, and I won't be tuning in again, and I certainly would go watch her speak.

[DickTater]

I did hear a good one about Palin dropping McPOW from the ticket.

[BigLib]

Baracky? Not so much...

More than 40 MILLION people see Palin speech

NEW YORK (AP) - Barack Obama apparently isn't the only "rock star" in presidential politics this year.
After days of intense media coverage about Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's qualifications, more than 40 million Americans tuned in Wednesday to see for themselves what they thought of her.

The huge audience for Palin's acceptance speech rivaled that for Obama's address at the Democratic National Convention six days earlier, and set a tough standard for the top of her own ticket.

[publanski]

Only because we were curious to see an unknown. I'm sure most of us won't be tuning in again, let alone going to see her speak.

[ConnieInCleveland]

Too much "swagger". Use of pittbull with lipstick was swagger. George W. had a lot of swagger, not much ethics. That hasn"t worked out so well for the country. Pitbulls are not known for leadership, they are most often associated with aggressive behavior, banned in some communities. If I"m given the choice of a Country Organizer vs. possibly vicious dog with lipstick, I"ll take the Organizer.

Obama/Biden '08

[LibRS]

yeah. the libs prefer a "priss" much more than a "swagger". god forbid someone show some backbone.

[Stanley]

Am I wrong to think she was underwhelming with a shrill voice barking out high school-like catty comments without a single proposal to actually "change" anything? What exactly was it that she did so well, before or now? She keeps saying "Warsh"ington and has little experience or education to lead our country and understand our problems without moronic partisan certitude to fall back on. She has no logic in her arguments whatsoever and simply says what is written for her. Get government out of your life but trust government when it comes to torturing and reproduction. Huh? Change is important right now! (As all the people in the room who are directly responsible for the mess we are in applaud) Who is she talking to? What kind of change? More of the same change we have had for eight years?

[TimmySlagle]

Yeah, you're wrong. You're letting your politics get in the way of your perception.

It was a great speech, and America loves her. Gallup and CBS polls have the election now in a dead heat.

What's really funny, is that team 0 is looking at her as the competition, rather than McCain. It's McCain v. Biden / 0 v. Sarah.

Sort of Guys against the Girls.