Barack Obama's audience for his acceptance speech likely topped 40 meg people, and the Democratic gathering that nominated him was a more pop television event than whatever other political convention in history.
More people watched Obama speak from a packed stadium in Denver on Thursday than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final "American Idol" or the Academy Awards this year, Nielsen Media Research said Friday. (Four playoff football games, including the Super Bowl between the Giants and Patriots, were seen by more than 40 billion people.)
His TV audience nearly doubled the amount of people world Health Organization watched John Kerry accept the Democratic nomination to run against President Bush four age ago. Kerry's speech was seen by a short more than 20 zillion people; Bush's acceptance speech to GOP delegates had 27.6 million viewers.
Through four years, the Democratic convention was seen in an average of 22.5 one thousand thousand households. No other convening - Republican or Democratic - had been seen in as many homes since Nielsen began keeping these records for the Kennedy-Nixon safari in 1960. There weren't enough television sets in American homes to hold possibly beaten this record in days before that.
The convention that comes closest in involvement was the 1976 Republican gathering, which averaged 21.9 trillion homes. That was the year President Gerald Ford fought off a challenge for the nomination from future President Ronald Reagan. For Democrats, the closest came during the 1980 convention where Sen. Edward Kennedy challenged President Jimmy Carter for the nomination.
This year's nominating speech fight was another epic battle, betwixt Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Even though it was decided before the convention, tV audience apparently were drawn to the historic nature of the number one black man nominated as a major party presidential candidate.
Nielsen aforesaid that 38.4 million people watched Obama's speech as it was carried live by 10 commercial-grade networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo.
PBS besides televised the speech, only didn't make up Nielsen for a count of its national viewership. Based on a sample of several large cities, PBS estimated that an additional 4 million mass saw the speech on its network. C-SPAN, which also televised the language, has no estimate of its audience.
Obama's speech was the fifth-highest-rated, non-sports event watched by blacks in the last 11 years. A 30th anniversary Michael Jackson special on CBS in 2001 was on top.
The acceptance speech was a special triumph for CNN, which clearly beat the trey big broadcasters head-to-head on a tidings event for the first base time always. An estimated 8.1 million people watched on CNN Thursday.
In general, audience estimates for the convening show the dramatically waning influence of ABC, CBS and NBC in coverage for these events. The three big broadcasters airy only one hour of convention coverage each night, and it seemed a particular balk on Thursday as its cable competition was able to usher the buildup to Obama's speech.
ABC was the second-most network for Obama-watchers, with 6.6 million. NBC had 6.1 gazillion, CBS 4.7 million, Fox News Channel 4.2 meg and MSNBC 4.1 million.
The Republican convention begins Monday in St. Paul, Minn. Republican candidate John McCain sought to claim away some of the attention from his rival on Friday by selecting Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
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