Day 3 DNC Ratings For Clinton, Biden Dip Slightly

admin — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:25:02 +0000

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.

Nielsen Wire » Day 3

Day 3 DNC Ratings For Clinton, Biden Dip Slightly