Presidential candidate John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention drew more television viewers than his rival Barack Obama attracted at the Democratic party's event last week, according to preliminary ratings from Nielsen Media Research.
Across all broadcast networks Thursday, Sen. McCain’s speech ended the night with a 4.8 rating/7 share, compared to Sen. Obama’s 4.3/7 average, according to overnight numbers from metered households in 55 U.S. markets measured by Nielsen. These ratings are preliminary, however, and are subject to change.
The angry right are ecstatic about this (read the comments). Could it be because McCain's supporters include more people over 65? While Obama's supporters watch on the Internet, McCain's supporters will be watching on TV? Do they count web viewers? Or were there just a lot of us trying not to fall asleep?
Here are Obama, Palin and McCain by numbers:
Swamp: McCain drew 38.9 million viewers for his speech last night in St. Paul, according to Nielsen. That was a half-million more viewers than Obama drew for his speech in Denver.
Fortunately for McCain, he also outdrew his own running mate, who had drawn an extraordinary audience in her own right with her convention speech this week, 37 million.
McCain drew more men than Obama did. The senior senator from Arizona drew an audience of 17.9 million men, Nielsen reports today, and 19.2 million women.
Obama drew a larger female audience for his speech -- 19.9 million women and 16.2 million men.
