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September 06, 2008
~ McCain, Obama tied in TV audiences!! ~
McCain, Obama tied in TV audiences
NEW YORK
As a television draw, John McCain was every bit the equal of Barack Obama.
The GOP presidential candidate attracted roughly the same number of viewers to his convention acceptance speech Thursday as Obama did before the Democrats last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.
It marked the end of an astonishing run where more than 40 million people watched political speeches on three nights by Obama, McCain and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. The Republican convention was the most-watched convention on television ever, beating a standard set by the Democrats a week earlier.
Three times in two weeks, political speeches were watched by more people than the "American Idol" finale, the Academy Awards and the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics this year.
"It clearly suggests that a great number of Americans think that who will be the next president is important and worthy of their time," said Tom Rosenstiel, a former political reporter and director of the Project for Excellence in journalism.
Television ratings throughout the primary season had already indicated an intense interest in the election, but viewers clearly were more fascinated in the Democratic contest between Obama and Hillary Clinton than the Republican nomination fight.
This week's ratings, with an average of 34.5 million viewers watching the GOP convention over three days, proved people are becoming more interested in what the Republicans have to say. The Democrats had an average audience of 30.2 million over four days, Nielsen said.
"No one really thought they had it in them in terms of pulling off this amazing convention," said Jay Wallace, vice president for news and editorial at Fox News Channel. But Hurricane Gustav pulled people into the news networks over the weekend, he said. People were also intensely curious about McCain's pick of Palin as a running mate, he said.
Nielsen said that 38.9 million people watched McCain accept the GOP nomination Thursday on either ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel or MSNBC. PBS, which has a more imprecise estimate based on samples in a few big cities, said 3.5 million watched on its network.
Last week, Obama's speech in Denver was seen by 38.4 million on 10 different commercial networks, and an additional 4 million on PBS.
Add it up, and that's McCain, 42.4 million, to Obama, 42.4 million.
No one can really tell who truly had the biggest audience, since C-SPAN also showed the speeches, and Nielsen doesn't measure the cable channel's viewers. But if the presidential vote is this close on Nov. 4, it will be a long night.
McCain may have caught a break Thursday when the opening NFL game between the New York Giants and Washington Redskins finished a couple of minutes before the Republican took the stage, Wallace said.
More men (17.9 million) watched McCain speak than watched Obama (16.2 million), Nielsen said.
"The storylines this year have been so amazing," Wallace said. "It really got started with Hillary and Obama—that got everyone in middle America watching. They got caught up in the drama of it."
The numbers put to rest the thought that politics has been a turnoff and death for ratings, which has long been gospel at the TV networks, Rosenstiel said.
That has particularly applied to convention coverage, which broadcast networks have backed away from over the years because executives saw them as stage-managed events. ABC, CBS and NBC each added an hour this year to convention coverage, but it didn't halt one trend: Viewers are just as likely to watch the conventions on cable news networks.
Fox was the most-watched network all three nights of the GOP convention, duplicating its feat from the 2004 GOP convention. CNN was the most popular destination for Obama's speech.
Fox had 9.2 million viewers for McCain's speech, followed by NBC—which aired the football game—at 8.7 million. ABC, CBS, CNN and MSNBC followed in order, Nielsen said.
Wild Thing's comment.......
OOHRAH! Obama the Messiah wasn't any hotter then what we have on our side. hahaha I LOVE it!
And he went to all that trouble to have the Greek columns and the whole thing. I loved how ours had the flag flying in the background.
Posted by Wild Thing at September 6, 2008 04:49 AM
Comments
As Rush puts it, "We have the babe on the ticket!"
The Obamanation camp has "the baby on the ticket."
She beat him when she gave her speech and we didn't need no stinking greek columns or big arena. We don't elevate ourselves to the "Godhood" level. We are down to earth, approachable and understanding. Everyone watched from home and enjoyed it! There will be potty training in the White House! We had ice cream sundaes and Rerun danced around the living room whenever they played music. We are a family-all us republicans. Sometimes dysfunctional, but it's all good in the end. We are Ohana, as Lilo and Stitch would say-No one is forgotten and no one gets left behind.
Posted by: Lynn at September 6, 2008 06:25 AM
I have never sat through 2 weeks of continuous convention coverage before this year, even being the political junkie that I am. Yada yada yada - turn the channel - heard it all before.
Sarah Palin and McCain's finish Thursday night made all the watching worth it. USA USA USA instead of ME ME ME.
I so appreciated all the tributes paid to the Veterans, which were barely a part of the Dems gathering.
Democratic Underground- and Daily Kos-bots were in desperate need of shorts changing this past week. heh
Posted by: yankeemom at September 6, 2008 09:29 AM
All that foo-foo hoopalah and it didn't get the libs even an extra inch. Nothing beats the American flag for those who still honor what it represents. And there are more of us than the libs even want to think about. Their nightmare has arrived and she wears lipstick and pencil skirts!!
Posted by: yankeemom at September 6, 2008 09:34 AM
I am glad the American public has taken a giant leap forward in political interest this election. Maybe apathy is left at the door this year. There is such a difference in the tickets that there should be little confusion or indecisiveness.
I watched the Repub convention on C-SPAN so my one person audience was not counted. C-SPAN because I hate all the commentary on the others.
Posted by: TomR at September 6, 2008 11:01 AM
Oh another rub on the Dems, all those flags they treated as shit back in Denver, many were being recycled by the GOP in St. Paul. Like Tom I hope the apathy has vaporized.
My MIL is a lifelong DEM, she taped the entire GOP convention, I couldn't get her out of the house. That's Change!!! Bless her heart, if only they'd vote for freedom.
Posted by: Jack at September 6, 2008 02:44 PM
Vilmar has a real interesting take on the numbers of viewers and channels watched.
http://antzinpantz.com/kns/?p=2668#comments
Read it again if you have to in order to catch the poor reporting and research done.
Finished?
What you should have caught was that the author of this article says McCain had 42.4 million watching him —- on SEVEN channels.
Obama? The same. But on TEN channels. Why 10? The Spanish channel, BET and one other covered him but not McCain.
So if this piece was written in a non-biased way, the author would have STRIPPED those other three channels from Obama’s numbers and compared both men head to head BY CHANNEL.
I’ve tried finding the numbers by channels at Nielsen but access is restricted.
Posted by: BobF at September 6, 2008 06:50 PM
Lynn, hahhhahaaha yes we sure do. That was so cute how Rush said that.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 6, 2008 10:15 PM
Yankeemom, yes everythung changed so much once Sarah entered the scene. I am so thrilled.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 6, 2008 10:24 PM
Yankeemom,LOL yess that would make a fun headline......
"Their nightmare has arrived and she wears lipstick and pencil skirts!!"
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 6, 2008 10:26 PM
Tom, I feel the same way.I feel there is hope for our country if people care more about what is going on. It will help to keep apathy away from taking a stronghold.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 6, 2008 10:30 PM
Jack,wow that is amazing for her to tape it like that. Yes maybe that means little by little she will vote conservative. With one of Nick's cousin's it took him step by step. Some of the others in his family I sadly think are a lost cause. hahaa
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 6, 2008 10:35 PM
BobF, wow good catch, thank you and thanks for the link too.
Posted by: Wild Thing at September 6, 2008 11:03 PM
