Palin gets 37,240,000 (Obama got 38,379,000)

[Sam Spade]

updated with full link...

http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/09/palin-ratings-s.html

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's highly anticipated speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night nearly matched the record-setting numbers of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Palin pulled in 37.2 million viewers across broadcast and cable networks, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That's 55% higher than Day 3 of the DNC, when her Democratic counterpart, Joe Biden, and President Clinton took the stage (24 million).

It's also up a sharp 99% from the Republican convention's third day in 2004 (18.7 million). In fact, it came close to upsetting Obama's historic address on Thursday -- the most-watched convention speech in history (38.4 million viewers).

Palin's viewership is up significantly from Tuesday's RNC tally, when 21.5 million tuned in to see President Bush and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman endorse nominee John McCain.

Palin has been beset by controversy since McCain shocked Beltway insiders by appointing the relatively little-known governor as his vice presidential pick. Her Wednesday night speech was presented as an opportunity to address her skeptics.

EDIT - One other key point from Nielsen:  Only six networks carried Palin's speech compared with ten for Obama (add BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo to that list).

[Eraserhead]

"Maybe" better than Obama? Was it or wasn't it?

He had just about 40 million people watching. When will we know how many she had overall?

[ChrisFromNJ]

"Maybe" better than Obama? Was it or wasn't it?

He had just about 40 million people watching. When will we know how many she had overall?

We'll see official numbers at around 4 or 5 PM EST... as Sam said, these are preliminary.

[Eraserhead]

Also how badly is Palin going to pwn McCain? You know that's going to be the case and that's just pretty odd.

[Meeker]

I thought this could happen as well... Palin's speech certainly had far more buzz leading up to it than Obama's.

[Eraserhead]

I thought this could happen as well... Palin's speech certainly had far more buzz leading up to it than Obama's.

I guess a lot of people saw that she was on every channel and said "who the hell is this?... she's pretty hot". lolz

[ChrisFromNJ]

Also how badly is Palin going to pwn McCain? You know that's going to be the case and that's just pretty odd.

Does it start to become a bad thing that Palin is overshadowing McCain?

Is that really what McCain was aiming for when he picked his VP?

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

By the numbers:

Obama's speech: 16,400,000 viewers on "the big three" cable.  17,4000,000 viewers on ABC/NBC/CBS.

Palin's speech: not sure yet about cable, but on ABC/NBC/CBS... what do ya know, she got the same 17,400,000.

[J. J.]

Obama, you just got bumps from the number one spot on American Top 40.  Sit over on the bench with Madonna and Michael Jackson.

[Person Man]

Whose the new Paris Hilton?

[MODU]

I thought this could happen as well... Palin's speech certainly had far more buzz leading up to it than Obama's.

I guess a lot of people saw that she was on every channel and said "who the hell is this?... she's pretty hot". lolz

Probably more like "Who is this Palin person they keep talking about in the news?  Let's watch to find out."

[Nym90]

Whose the new Paris Hilton?

Obama should run an ad about Palin saying "She's the biggest celebrity in the world" and show the crowd roaring in approval for her speech, then say "But is she ready to lead?"

[Keystone Phil]

Wow. That's amazing. This is great.

[??????????]

Not to bad for a lady who the mainstream world only heard of a week ago.

[ChrisFromNJ]

Is this the first time a vice presidential candidate will get more viewers during the convention than a presidential candidate?

This is terrible news for the McCain candidacy. The Sarah Palin for 2012 committee must be getting very excited, but the last time I checked, John McCain was running in 2008.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Whose the new Paris Hilton?

Obama should run an ad about Palin saying "She's the biggest celebrity in the world" and show the crowd roaring in approval for her speech, then say "But is she ready to lead?"

go for it

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Is this the first time a vice presidential candidate will get more viewers during the convention than a presidential candidate?

This is terrible news for the McCain candidacy. The Sarah Palin for 2012 committee must be getting very excited, but the last time I checked, John McCain was running in 2008.

unlike Obama, McCain's not worried about being upstaged by a woman.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

This is terrible news for the McCain candidacy. The Sarah Palin for 2012 committee must be getting very excited, but the last time I checked, John McCain was running in 2008.

Let me guess: You're vomiting profusely from spinning too much?

[ChrisFromNJ]

Is this the first time a vice presidential candidate will get more viewers during the convention than a presidential candidate?

This is terrible news for the McCain candidacy. The Sarah Palin for 2012 committee must be getting very excited, but the last time I checked, John McCain was running in 2008.

unlike Obama, McCain's not worried about being upstaged by a woman.

He should be.

This is not good news for McCain.

[Alcon]

This is not good news for McCain.

Haha.

You're right.  People are going to be so interested in his VP that they're not going to vote for him.  Huh?

[ChrisFromNJ]

This is terrible news for the McCain candidacy. The Sarah Palin for 2012 committee must be getting very excited, but the last time I checked, John McCain was running in 2008.

Let me guess: You're vomiting profusely from spinning too much?

No, this is the truth.

It is not a good thing when your VP candidate starts getting more attention than the presidential candidate.

Sarah Palin is becoming an entity all within herself. That is not a good thing for John McCain, who has presidential ambitions in 2008, not in 2012 and 2016.

[Reaganfan]

Nielsen released its ratings for Day 3 of the Republican convention. Some highlights:


Sarah Palin's speech generated 37.2 million viewers, just a 1.1 million viewers short of Barack Obama's record-breaking speech on Day 4 of the Democratic Convention. More impressive was that Palin's speech was carried on only six networks while the Obama speech was carried on ten (including BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo).
Palin attracted a very large female audience (19.5 million women, or 4.9 million more than Day 3 of the Democratic Convention).
Ratings for viewers 55+ (25.2) continue to be about ten times higher than for teens (2.2)

[Alcon]

Sarah Palin is becoming an entity all within herself. That is not a good thing for John McCain, who has presidential ambitions in 2008, not in 2012 and 2016.

I don't get it.  The convention is going to nominate her instead?

[ChrisFromNJ]

This is not good news for McCain.

Haha.

You're right.  People are going to be so interested in his VP that they're not going to vote for him.  Huh?

Dude, you're smarter than this.

Don't start with that condescending BS.

Are all 37,000,000 people who listened to her speech going to vote for her?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Thats pretty impressive that she went toe to toe with that one despite the leadup to his. Well done and it certainly will outshine McCain.