Updated: McCain beats Obama. Unless ...

UPDATED: If election night is half as close and contested as Thursday's ratings race, we're in for a heckuva evening.

John McCain's speech was watched by more viewers than Barack Obama's, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The Republican nominee beat Obama's record-setting convention speech viewership by 500,000 among broadcast and cable networks.

McCain's address at the Republican National Convention was seen by about 38.9 million viewers. Obama received 38.4 million.

That means McCain's speech is now the most-watched in convention history -- 41% higher than President Bush's acceptance speech four years ago, and 1% higher than Obama's address last week.

But wait.

If you add in PBS -- which is tracked by Nielsen as meter-market projections, but not counted among its regular national ratings sample -- Obama beat McCain.

PBS estimated that 2.7 million viewers tuned in last night and 3.5 million watched Obama. So if you include those viewers, Obama beat out McCain by an even slimmer margin, 41.9 to 41.6  million viewers.

Either way, a squeaker.

The usual practice is to use the numbers Nielsen announced. That's the official count, since a different measurement system is used for PBS, which unlike the others is not an ad-supported network. One could also try including viewers watching C-SPAN (which isn't tracked by Nielsen) or even online viewing. Given the amount of media attention that convention coverage ratings have received over the past couple weeks, with the whole Nielsen race becoming a sort of pre-election election, there's always a few more ballots to be found somewhere. 

The bottom-line point to extract from all these numbers is that last week few would have predicted that McCain would draw an audience that compared to Obama's. Attendance of their live appearances have been pretty unequal. By any viewership measurement, McCain managed to roughly match his opponent last night, indicating that interest in the candidates may not be as disproportionate as some have assumed.

Focusing strictly on the official Nielsen-reported networks, McCain drew significantly more male viewers than Obama (16.2 million). McCain also drew more white viewers (32.2 million), while Obama was seen by more black viewers.

Though anticipation has been running high for McCain's address, the speech also may have benefited slightly from a strong NFL lead-in on NBC. Initially Republicans feared McCain might have to compete with the game for viewers' attention. But the NFL match started early, then put about 13.6 million viewers on the doorstep of NBC's 10 p.m. coverage of McCain's speech.

Still, NBC has aired the most-watched convention coverage among the broadcaster nets all week, and its numbers compared to rivals were not much different than on previous nights. In other words: The game may have helped, but it wasn't a major factor in McCain's massive viewership (even with the NBC receiving an NFL lead-in, Fox News is expected to win the network-by-network breakdown).

Also, with interest in his running mate Sarah Palin spiking viewership for the RNC on Wednesday, the convention was able to gain some significant momentum after losing its first night to Hurricane Gustav coverage. McCain received 5% more viewers than his running mate.

UPDATE:

FOX NEWS: 9.1 MILLION
NBC: 8.7 MILLION
ABC: 6 MILLION
CBS: 5.3 MILLION
CNN: 4.8 MILLION
MSNBC: 2.5 MILLION

(from 10 p.m. to 11:15 p.m.)

UPDATE II: Obama gives O'Reilly a ratings bump

Bill O'Reilly's pre-RNC coverage interview with Sen. Barack Obama on Thursday brought "The O'Reilly Factor" the second-highest ratings in its history -- 6.6 million viewers.

Read all of THR's convention coverage

Comments

YOU ARE EITHER A LIB, OR AMERICAN

IT'S WELL KNOWN AND DOCUMENTED THAT LIBERALS HATE AMERICA.

LIBERALS BAD MOUTH AMERICA, BUT WON'T LEAVE THE COUNTRY THEY DESPISE.

AGAIN............. YOU ARE EITHER A LIBERAL OR AN AMERICAN, BUT "NOT" BOTH.

WHY DO LIBERALS HATE AMERICA?

WHY?

WHY ARE LIBERALS IGNORED?
WHY ARE LIBERALS REJECTED?

AMERICA REJECTS LIBERALS FOR MANY, MANY REASONS...........JUST A FEW:

* THE TYPICAL LIBERAL IS UNABLE TO BE TRUTHFUL = ZERO CREDIBILITY
* THE TYPICAL LIBERAL IS A HYPOCRITE, LIVING IN A DELUSIONAL WORLD
* THE TYPICAL LIBERAL'S MARXIST/SOCIALIST AGENDA IS A FAILURE
* THE TYPICAL LIBERAL HATES AMERICA, BUT WON'T DEPART
* THE TYPICAL LIBERAL HATES U.S. TROOPS
* THE TYPICAL LIBERAL ENGAGES IN TREASON AND VOCALLY PROMOTES SURRENDER

WHY WOULD ANY LOGICAL PERSON LISTEN TO THE HYSTERICAL RANTING OF A LUNATIC LIBERAL? IT'S NO SURPRISE THAT LIBERALS CONSTANTLY LOSE ELECTIONS. AMERICA KNOWS IT, AND AMERICA REJECTS LIBERALS.

[FREEDOMOFSPEECH]

VERY COMMON FOR MOST DEMOCRATS TO FALL ASLEEP.
PERHAPS OBAMA IS JUST LOOKING TO POCKET THE CONTRIBUTIONS AND RUN.
AFTER LISTENING TO BOTH SPEECHES AND REVIEWING BOTH CANDITATES RESUME'S ANYONE WHO WOULD CAST THEIR VOTE FOR THE ANTI-FLAG/ANTI-PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE BARACK OBAMA IS A COMPLETE ANTI-PATRIOTIC MORON.

[FREEDOMOFSPEECH]

ISSUE JOHN McCAIN
Favors new drilling offshore US Yes
Will appoint judges who interpret the law not make it Yes
Served in the US Armed Forces Yes
Amount of time served in the US Senate 22 YEARS
Will institute a socialized national health care plan No
Supports abortion throughout the pregnancy No
Would pull troops out of Iraq immediately No
Supports gun ownership rights Yes
Supports homosexual marriage No
Proposed programs will mean a huge tax increase No
Voted against making English the official language No
Voted to give Social Security benefits to illegals No
ABOVE ISSUES VOTED BY BARAK OBAMA
No
No
No
173 DAYS
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

MCCAIN 0% on home sales up to $500,000 per home (couples). McCain does not propose any change in existing home sales income tax.

OBAMA 28% on profit from ALL home sales. (How does this affect you? If you sell your home and make a profit, you will pay 28% of your gain on taxes. If you are heading toward retirement and would like to down-size your home or move into a retirement community, 28% of the money you make from your home will go to taxes. This proposal will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the income from their homes as part of their retirement income.)

MCCAIN 15% (no change)

OBAMA 39.6% -
(How will this affect you? If you have any money invested in stock market, IRA, mutual funds, college funds, life insurance, retirement accounts, or anything that pays or reinvests dividends, you will now be paying nearly 40% of the money earned on taxes if Obama becomes president. The experts predict that 'Higher tax rates on dividends and capital gains would crash the stock market, yet do absolutely nothing to cut the deficit.')

MCCAIN (no changes)
Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $31,250

OBAMA (reversion to pre-Bush tax cuts)
single making 30K - tax $8,400
Single making 50K - tax $14,000
Single making 75K - tax $23,250
Married making 60K - tax $16,800
Married making 75K - tax $21,000
Married making 125K - tax $38,750
Under Obama, your taxes could almost double!
MCCAIN - 0% (No change, Bush repealed this tax)
OBAMA Restore the inheritance tax
Many families have lost businesses, farms, ranches, and homes that have been in their families for generations because they could not afford the inheritance tax. Those willing their assets to loved ones will only lose them to these taxes.
NEW TAXES PROPOSED BY OBAMA
New government taxes proposed on homes that are more than 2400 square feet. New gasoline taxes (as if gas weren't high enough already) New taxes on natural resources consumption (heating gas, water, electricity) New taxes on retirement accounts, and last but not least....New taxes to pay for socialized medicine so we can receive the same level of medical care as other third-world countries!!!

[Mark]

RESPONSE:

Someone responded to my ealier post:

"just because George W. is a village drunk and the village idiot in one doesn't mean I hate the office of the POTUS. Just the retard behind the desk!"

And this is exactly my point. In the military (I was an officer), we had a saying that you don't have to like the man, but you have to respect the rank. You (and a lot of others) have resorted to words, terms and narrative that DEMONIZE the President of the United States. Since POTUS is a DEMON, MORON, DRUNK, and whatever other nasty words you can think of, you think that it somehow proves your point.

But what is your point, exactly? That the American Public is stupid? The VOTERS re-elected him by the largest margin in over 20 years. And you're angry at HIM? He's the village idiot and a village drunk, right? So if he's so stupid, how do you explain the fact that he was smart enough to "fool" all of the villagers?

But that's not even the biggest issue. The biggest issue is that in your anger and hatred of Bush, the Democrats and their supporters have forever damaged the OFFICE of POTUS. While we wasted millions of dollars on an investigation of the "outing" of an inactive CIA agent with absolutely NO NATIONAL SECURITY RAMIFICATIONS, the Dems leaked the information about the Domestic Wiretapping program that was our last line of defense to discover and thwart ongoing terrorist operations within the country. I can't discuss how, but I have personal knowledge of several VERY FRIGHTENING terrorist attacks that were prevented through this program.

This was a weapon that POTUS -- Not George Bush -- had and should have in the future. If the next POTUS is a Democrat, he/she will NEVER have this weapon. So if your 14 year-old son takes the family car for a joyride, your solution is to blow up the car--that way HE can never use it again--but then again--neither can you. This is what I am talking about--the Dems have become so blinded by RAGE and HATRED that they have forever damaged the very ofice that they are fighting over and they are unable to even see it.

Go ahead, dislike the man, but respect the office and respect the American Public who put him there (twice). The question I wish the Dems would ask themselves is why the American Public has been rejecting them for so long. Maybe then they can come up with some REAL solutions and not rely on scare tactics, the politics of blame and the same, tired refrain: "Anybody but Bush."

HINT: BUSH is NOT running in 2008. TALK TO US--NOT AT US! You do not know what is best for us and you don;t get to decide. WE THE PEOPLE get to decide. All you get to do is make suggestions. ANYBODY BUT BUSH is not a solution and WE THE PEOPLE have told you this time and time again. When we finally gave you a chance to make a difference, you said that if you won Congress and the Senate, you would get us out of Iraq. We're still there and you've had a majority in both houses for two years. WHY?

[Gilbert]

Typical crying I read from these democratic people. Worshipping Obama will get you exactly what you need - a wakeup call. Get a life, learn to read and stop calling yourselves liberal. You are the most hate filled people... Most of these "commentators" could not do HALF of what Senator McCain has done and continues to do FOR THIS COUNTRY. Worshipping Obama - sickining... after all our forefathers did to secure this country for their posterity. SAD.

[Carol]

I have to say, every time I read the Obama followers posts, they are filled with hatred. It seems to be the way of his compaign I suppose. All you America hating people. I mean his own wife after all said the first time she'd been proud of her country was when her husband was nominated. That's pretty bad.

I have a lot of things I don't like Obama about, but I don't go around being a jerk about it. This is America. You vote for who you want to, I'll vote for who I want to. No need to be so mean spirited and hateful. Grow up a little bit people. It's what's wrong with this country. Everybody constantly feels the need to lash out at others.

[jim]

You libs crack me up. In a few months you'll lose another one, and go away with your tails between your legs and scratching your heads once again. Why? How? America must be stupid! You'll surround yourself with all your like-minded libs and try to group-think your way to some Republican conspiracy theory.

Where are all the feminists supporting Palin? Oh, I forgot she needs to be a liberal woman to get that support. Change N.O.W to N.O.L.W. - National Organization of Liberal Women.

One quick note about socialized medicine. Have you ever been to the DMV? Well now envision it with some guys walking around with stethoscopes...sounds like a great idea.

Remember to be a liberal when your really young, impressionable, and influenced by your commie-lib, hippy professors is kinda cute. To keep those same ideals when you grow up is pathetic.

Socialism is not the American dream...Libs will do better when they realize this.

TAX TAX TAX and make government bigger so it can create more government programs and redistribute the wealth of the country...It's only fair, right?

And don't talk to me about GW, he is no republican, he's a moron who has spent more than the commie-libs....but certainly not more than Obama will. Obama, your great paper candidate, without an ounce of principle or spine. Stop reading from those teleprompters...go back to teaching at the universities so you can further brainwash generations of dopey impressionable teens to come.