Posts Tagged ‘Democratic Convention’

In accepting the nomination for president, TV Decoder reports that Barack Obama not only enticed the attention of the nearly 80,000 supports at the Denver Broncos football stadium, but almost 38 million television viewers too.

The ratings topped last year’s Oscars (32 million), every night of the Beijing Olympic Games (which, at its best had 34.9 million), and last spring’s American Idol finale (31.7 million) according to US Weekly.

Compared to other empowering speeches from Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Obama’s running-mate Joe Biden, Obama’s acceptance speech was easily the most-watched hour of the Democratic convention.

The four days of the convention combined averaged 27.7 million viewers, making it the most-watched convention, Democratic or Republican, on record according to Nielsen Media Research.  (Note Nielsen viewership has only been calculated since 2000).

John Kerry’s speech in 2004 drew 24.4 million viewers and George W. Bush’s was watched by 27.5 million, reports US Weekly.

E! News reports that after Obama, the week’s next-biggest draw was his primaries rival Hillary Clinton.  Tuesday’s prime-time coverage, featuring a speech by Clinton, averaged 26 million. Wednesday night, featuring a speech by former President Bill Clinton, averaged 24 million.