For their respective nomination speeches at the conventions, Senator Barack Obama drew 38.3 million TV viewers compared to 37.2 million for Governor Sarah Palin. Tracking buzz via Nielsen Online the day after each speech, Obama again showed an edge with mentions in nearly 3.5% of all blog posts on August 29, compared to Palin’s peak of just north of 2.5% of all posts the day after her highly anticipated debut on the national stage. As reported previously, Palin’s announcement buzz overshadowed that of her rival Joe Biden as well as …

More than 37.2 million people tuned in for coverage of the third night of the 2008 Republican National Convention, which featured Sarah Palin’s much anticipated national debut. 
Wednesday night’s RNC broadcasts attracted just a 1.1 million fewer viewers than Barack Obama’s record-breaking speech on day four of the Democratic convention. 
Coverage of day three of the GOP convention drew a large female audience (19.5 million) — 5.2 million more women than tuned in for day two of the Democratic convention, when Hillary Clinton addressed the delegates, and 6.9 million more women than …

More than 21.5 million people watched the second night of the 2008 Republican National Convention — a 17% decrease from the 26 million viewers who tuned in last week for day two of the Democratic National Convention.
Tuesday night’s speeches by Former Senator Fred Thompson and Senator Joe Lieberman drew many more women (11.2 million) than men (9.5 million), as was also the case on day two of the Democratic convention, when Hillary Clinton delivered her endorsement of Barack Obama.
So far, coverage of the GOP convention has not drawn the large numbers …

Since John McCain’s announcement that his running mate would be Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, blogs have been buzzing about this little-known leader of the 49th state. According to Nielsen Online’s BuzzMetrics service, the Aug 29th event sent chatter about Palin well beyond that for her Democratic rival Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, whose announcement on August 22, impacted slightly more than 1.75% of all blog posts, compared with Palin’s peak above 2.25%. Even the impending Gulf Coast landfall of Hurricane Gustav on the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina was overshadowed …

Olympic athletes broke 132 Olympics records and set 43 new world records during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
Meanwhile, Olympics fans who logged on to the Internet to follow the events around the clock set a new online precedent during the Games,  Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.
Olympics Web Portals
In the U.S., NBC, an official broadcast partner for the event, drew an average of 18 million (week one) to 18.9 million unique visitors (week two) to its Olympics website during the Games.
Yahoo’s Olympics section drove more traffic than NBC’s site, but visitors to NBCOlympics.com …

Senators McCain and Obama spent about the same on Olympics TV advertising — between $5 and $6 million, Adweek reported Monday.
But McCain got much more bang for his advertising bucks, according to an analysis by Nielsen IAG.
Nielsen’s survey of 1,600 likely general election voters who watched the Beijing Games found that McCain’s Olympic ads more effectively communicated a basic message, were recalled by more viewers, and triggered a larger intent-to-vote increase among viewers than ads run by Obama’s campaign. 
On average, the two McCain ads that were surveyed — “Celebrity” and “Washington’s …

ABC’s primetime coverage of the final day of the Democratic National Convention led in viewership drawing an average audience of roughly 6.6 million viewers. The event featured the widely viewed acceptance speech by Sen. Barack Obama.
Convention coverage from NBC and CBS also made their way into the top 10.

RANK
NAME
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

1
VOTE2008:DEM NAT CONV-THU(S)-08/28/2008
ABC
6,584,000

2
DECISION ‘08 DEM CONV THU(S)-08/28/2008
NBC
6,100,000

3
BIG BROTHER 10-THU
CBS
5,969,000

4
CSI
CBS
5,297,000

5
MOMENT OF TRUTH 8/28-9P(S)-08/28/2008
FOX
5,179,000

6
AL DIABLO CON GUAPOS THU
UNI
5,127,000

7
CAMPAIGN 2008-DEM CONV-TH(S)-08/28/2008
CBS
4,722,000

8
FUEGO EN LA SANGRE THU
UNI
4,685,000

9
GREY’S ANATOMY-THU 9PM
ABC
4,008,000

10
MOMENT OF TRUTH 8/28-8P(S)-08/28/2008
FOX
3,690,000

Source: The Nielsen Company (August 28, 2008)

Overall, NBC won the night with an average audience …

Day four of the Democratic National Convention featured the acceptance speech by nominee Sen. Barack Obama.  The convention was carried live during prime time on ten networks – ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo.  Coverage varied by network, all ten aired live coverage from approximately 10-11PM (ET). The final night drew the largest audience so far for the Democrats (24.5% of all American homes), eclipsing the audience reach the three previous evenings.

The speech by Sen. Obama was the fifth most-viewed, non-sports program …

More than 24 million people watched the third night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention — a 7.5% decrease from 26 million viewers on day two of the convention.
Wednesday night’s speeches, which featured Former President Bill Clinton’s endorsement of Senator Obama and Senator Joseph Biden’s acceptance of his party’s nomination for vice president, drew 12.2% of all African American viewers — down slightly from the prevous night when Hillary Clinton addressed the convention (12.7%), but up from day one (12%), when Michelle Obama spoke.
Viewers age 55 and older continue to dominate …

Almost 26 million people watched the second night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention — a 16% increase from 22.3 million viewers on the opening night of the convention.
Tuesday night’s speeches, which featured Senator Hillary Clinton’s much anticipated keynote address, continued to draw a large proportion of African Americans (12.7% of all African American viewers tuned in). 
Viewers age 55 and older also continued to dominate Tuesday night’s TV audience, with 20% of all Americans in that age group watching the convention coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, BET, …