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 the DNC’s TV audience, with 18.1% of all Americans in that age group — 12.5 million people — tuning in to Wednesday night’s convention coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.
| RATING | NUMBER | |
|---|---|---|
| All Households | 16.4 | 18,481,000 |
| Persons 2+ | 8.4 | 24,029,000 |
| Persons 12-17 | 1.9 | 440,000 |
| Persons 18-34 | 4.7 | 3,131,000 |
| Persons 18-49 | 6.2 | 8,153,000 |
| Persons 55+ | 18.1 | 12,509,000 |
| African American Persons 2+ * | 12.2 | 4,413,000 |
| Hispanic Persons 2+ * | 2.7 | 1,159,000 |
| White Persons 2+ * | 8.4 | 18,125,000 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company (August 27, 2008) | ||
| Figures are the sum of the networks during the common hour of coverage. Included networks are ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One. | ||
| *Ratings for African American, Hispanic, and White viewers show the percent of African American, Hispanic, and White persons age two and older in TV homes watching the convention coverage. | ||
In comparison to day three of the 2004 convention, which drew almost 18 million viewers, the audience for day three of the 2008 convention was still significantly larger (up by a third to 24 million viewers).
On Wednesday, August 27, 2008, convention coverage varied by network, with all eight networks noted above airing live coverage from approximately 10pm to 11pm EST.
View the full media alert.
Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in MarketWatch, The New York Times’ “TV Decoder” blog, and Variety.
Where are the numbers for PBS? The only channel I watch for campaign coverage.
[...] coverage of the DNC drew 24 million television viewers. That was down from 26 million viewers on Tuesday night, but up from 18 million on the third day of [...]
[...] #3 of Democratic convention drew more than 24 million viewers, Neilsen reports, “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 [...]
With PBS, we measure in a more customized way that matches their unique needs. Just as PBS does not distribute programs in the same way that broadcast networks do, we do not provide ratings in the same way. For example, commercial broadcast network affiliates typically air network programs at the same day/time as other affiliates. PBS stations often pick and choose which programs to carry and subsequently frequently schedule them at different times. And, PBS does not have the same need to understand audiences to satisfy advertiser needs. The result is that PBS identifies those programs for which it wants national audience estimates and provides Nielsen with a line-up of stations around the country that air that program along with days and dates the shows air. Nielsen then verifies that the stations carried the show using electronic verification and produces audience estimates. This is a more time-consuming method than is used with commercial broadcast and cable networks – and is only done for those national programs that PBS selects. National convention viewing to PBS has not been reported by Nielsen. Any estimates that PBS has issued are their own, based on procedures that PBS would have to explain.
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