Via the Live Feed: Sarah Palin scores huge viewership at RNC

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

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

blockquote>It’s also up a sharp 99% from the Republican convention’s third day in 2024 (18.7 million) and easily bests the numbers viewers attracted by George W. Bush when he accepted the nomination (27.6 million). In fact, it came close to upsetting Obama’s historic address last Thursday — the most-watched convention speech in history (38.4 million viewers).

There are impressive numbers, and clearly the McCain campaign has to be quite pleased at the buzz the Palin pick generated.

Without a doubt, there is a lot of interest in this election.

11 Comments

1. It will be interesting to see if the polling bears this out, but my gut tells me that the game is closer now than it was before the conventions.

   If that’s true, then the republican convention has to be labeled as more successful than its democratic counterpart.

   Comment by Captain D — Thursday, September 4, 2024 @ 11:03 pm

2. Forbes is reporting that Palin’s audience was over 40 million. The 37.2 million did not iclude an estimated 3.9 viewers on PBS.

   http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/09/04/ap5391494.html

   It’s interesting to note also that the Obama speech was carried by more networks than the Palin speech. Obama was on BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo, in addition to all the networks Palin was on. Palin was on any networks that Obama was not.

   Comment by Captain D — Thursday, September 4, 2024 @ 11:58 pm

3. There is special interest in this election. But it’s also true that the negative press about the Palin pick helped a lot of people decide to see her for themselves.

   Preliminary polls are that 9% on independents are now more likely to vote McCain than before her speech.

   Comment by Max Lybbert — Friday, September 5, 2024 @ 1:22 am

4. Palin being a unknown politician and the least expected to be the VP choice attracted attention than McCain. Don’t forget the news about her pregnant daughter and basically a sudden thirst for her background. But we have to see if she can sustain it.

   Comment by yerlam — Friday, September 5, 2024 @ 2:33 am

5. Cap’n D: Yep–that was that same deal with the Obama numbers, PBS isn’t included.

   Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Friday, September 5, 2024 @ 7:14 am

6. The difference is, people know plenty of Joe Biden. He was brought in for his merits, Palin, on the other hand, was brought in to generate buzz and excitement.

   Comment by Black Political Analysis — Friday, September 5, 2024 @ 8:44 am

7. Palin brought a breath of fresh air and renewed interest into the campaign which carried over to McCain. Preliminary reports indicate a larger viewer ship for McCain’s acceptance speech than Obama’s.

   The brilliant candidate of change picked a stodgy old politics as usual person for VP.

   The true strategic brilliance of McCain’s pick for VP continues to shine through.

   Comment by devildog666 — Friday, September 5, 2024 @ 10:13 am

8. Don’t want to go into the merits of Palin discussion again.

   But it is interesting how close she came to topping Obama. As close as they were you could reasonably say she had the same size audience that he did. That has to be a bit alarming to David Axelrod and the rest of Obama’s staff.

   I’m not sure in the long term what she’ll do, but in the short term there’s no question in my mind that her presence on the GOP ticket has generated interest in the party that was not there before she was announced. Whether that’s a good thing, or whether it will hold up is something we can argue about all day (and have already done so). But the numbers speak for themselves.

   I will be VERY interested in seeing how she performs in the VP debate, which I anticipate being the most watched in history.

   Comment by Captain D — Friday, September 5, 2024 @ 1:37 pm

9. I think that it reflects, above all else, what I noted in the post: there is a great deal of general interest in this election. And, she was unknown, which as BPA notes, would explain why her numbers were higher than Biden’s. I will curious as to what McCain’s were.

   Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Friday, September 5, 2024 @ 2:15 pm

10. It occurs to me that the comparisons that are being made between Obama and Palin(experience, ratings, crowd enthusiasm, etc.) probably aren’t good for Obama. It’s never good when you’re #1 is being compared to the other team’s #2. It implies that the other #1 is better than yours.

    During the 70’s a valid comparison could be made between running backs Tony Dorsett and Franco Harris. However if the comparison is between Dorsett and Rocky Blier, Harris (and Pittsburgh) wins by default.

    Comment by Buckland — Friday, September 5, 2024 @ 3:53 pm

11. Buckland,

    I am not sure I fully accept the premise, but I take the basic point. Of course, in terms of excitement, the GOP appears more excited about their #2 than their #1, which bespeaks of its own set of problems for the ticket.

    You are right in one way for sure: the Obama campaign would be foolish to turn this into a Obama-Palin fight, if anytihng because of the #1 v. #2 elements you note.

    Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Friday, September 5, 2024 @ 4:43 pm

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