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 among African American households in the last 11 years.
Highest Rated Programs Among African Americans 1997-2008
Viewers age 2+ (Sports Not Included)
| Rank | Program | Date | Network | African American Rating | African American Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | MICHAEL JACKSON 30TH ANN. | 11/13/01 | CBS | 24.7 | 8,135,436 |
| 2 | NBC MOVIE OF THE WEEK: The Temptations Pt. 2 | 11/2/98 | NBC | 23.6 | 7,539,709 |
| 3 | PRIMETIME SP EDITION-12/4: Whitney Houston | 12/4/02 | ABC | 22.1 | 7,443,277 |
| 4 | OPRAH WINFREY PRESENTS: The Wedding Pt. 2 | 2/23/98 | ABC | 21.6 | 6,748,990 |
| 5 | DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION | 8/28/08 | 10 Networks | 21 | 7,752,424 |
* Persons ratings for African American, Hispanic are % of African American/ Hispanic persons age 2+ in TV homes watching the convention coverage. 2008 Networks Included: Days 1, 2, 3 – ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, BET, TV One Day 4 – ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, BET, TV One, Univision, Telemundo 2004 Networks Included: Days 1, 3, 4 – ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC Day 2 – CNN, FOX News, MSNBC. ABC, CBS, NBC regularly scheduled programs.
Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the National Review, CBS News, the Boston Herald, and Variety.
[...] [Neilsen Wire] [...]
[...] of people watched Barack Obama: Day four of the Democratic National Convention featured the acceptance speech by nominee Sen. [...]
[...] acceptance speech in Denver Thursday night drew a record number of television viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. More than 38 million — one in four households — watched the hour-long speech on 10 networks, [...]
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[...] conference […] Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) espousal style terminal period reached a lodge of America’s households, according to Nielsen Media Research. In all, with over 38 meg viewers, “more grouping [...]
I watched on C-Span as did others that I know. We didn’t want editing and inane prattle.
[...] Obama’s acceptance speech made it to over a quarter of all American households. That’s over 38 million – larger than the opening ceremonies of the Olympics and larger than the audience for the final American Idol (yep, folks, that’s how we measure these things), where the winner is announced. [...]
The Nielsen survey was limited to commercial tv stations and missed the non-commercial networks of PBS and CSPAN. PBS representatives stated that they estimated a viewership of 4 millions in their network. Our family watched PBS since 9:00 pm, the speech of Al Gore and the commentaries of Mark Shields and David Brooks among others.
Also CSPAN broadcasted the whole convention without interruption and we watched parts of it. After midnight CSPAN rebroadcasted the entire speech of Obama.
Maybe CSPAN had between one and perhaps three millions additional viewers making a grand total, including the commercial networks, of between at least 40 millions and up to 45 millions viewers.
[...] of people watched Barack Obama: Day four of the Democratic National Convention featured the acceptance speech by nominee Sen. [...]
[...] according to Nielsen: “The speech by Sen. Obama was the fifth most-viewed, non-sports program among African [...]
Thanks for your comments, Jose.
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.
C-SPAN is not included because Nielsen does not measure and report C-SPANs’ audiences. Many cable networks choose not to have Nielsen measurement for a variety of reasons specific to the network. For example, the home shopping networks do not subscribe to Nielsen. It is probably safe to say they measure their success by other means.
[...] kill them if I miss the end of the fourth quarter.) Particularly with the Nielsen revelation that Obama’s speech reached a quarter of American households (who knew that Nielsen had a blog?), it will be interesting to see how much of the lead-in audience [...]
[...] million people tuned in to coverage of the final night of the GOP convention. In comparison, Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic convention drew 38.4 million [...]
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