Maggie Gray, Research Analyst, Online Division
When Sen. Edward Kennedy died late on Tuesday Aug. 25, a year after his 2008 appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, news coverage and online discussion began in earnest as soon as the Kennedy family made the announcement.
By the end of Wednesday (Aug. 26) Kennedy attracted nearly 1% of all blog buzz, according to Nielsen’s BlogPulse search engine, and by Thursday morning (Aug. 27), he was the most-discussed person in the blogosphere. His New York Times obituary was also the most-cited news …

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, …

More than 22 million people — and 17 million U.S. households — watched the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention on Monday, August 25.
A large percentage of African American households (24%) tuned in for the night’s speeches, which included a keynote address by Michelle Obama. 
Among White households in the U.S., 14.6% watched the convention Monday night, while just 7.3% of Hispanic households tuned in.
Viewers age 55 and older also dominated the TV audience Monday night – 16.6% of all Americans in that age group watched the first night of convention coverage broadcast live during primetime on ABC, CBS, NBC, …