2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumDemocratic Convention Beats Football In Ratings
by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 6, 2012
NEW YORK (AP) The second night of the Democratic National Convention beat the Republicans in television ratings and, perhaps more impressively, beat pro football.
An estimated 25.1 million people watched the convention between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Wednesday, when former President Bill Clinton delivered an impassioned nomination speech for President Barack Obama, the Nielsen ratings company said.
During that hour, just over 20 million people were watching the second half of the Dallas Cowboys' season-opening victory over the New York Giants. Faced with competition from Clinton, ratings for football's first game were down from the past two years.
The second night of the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla., last week, featuring vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, was seen by 21.9 million people, Nielsen said Thursday.
Democratic convention ratings held up well compared to 2008, when interest was particularly high. The Democrats had a four-day convention then, with 25.9 million viewers on the second day and 24 million on the third. None of those nights faced competition from pro football.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=160709091
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)abumbyanyothername
(2,711 posts)I believe that Hillary spoke on the third night and gave one of the best political speeches ever. Of course, she got blown out of the water by the candidate the next night.
karynnj
(59,503 posts)The third night in 2008 was designation as national security and Bill Clinton, John Kerry and Biden were key speakers (though I think most of the cable stations showed their talking heads during Kerry's speech.)
Grown2Hate
(2,010 posts)someone I'm a SUPER proud to have on our side! Laid that case out so that ANYONE could see the truth.
juajen
(8,515 posts)I don't bust his chops for the sexual indiscretions. After all, "Men are like ticks; they latch on to anything with warm blood and hair, or no hair. Just saying.
Grown2Hate
(2,010 posts)reference the picture of Secretary Clinton watching Bill give that speech, with her hands on her heart, PROUD as can be). I was actually referring to policy. Still, a GREAT President AND First Lady. And a HUGE difference between how much we (AND AMERICA!) still love our last President, vs. He Who Must Not Be Named at the RNC convention!
NYC Liberal
(20,135 posts)SmittynMo
(3,544 posts)And it's NOT the republicans vision.
LiberalFighter
(50,906 posts)Of course, having it on Wednesday nite doesn't help either. But, I would have forgotten even if it was on Thursday nite. There are only two nights the NFL should be on. Sunday and Monday.
ahg
(64 posts)But it was the dallas cowgirls. No one watches them.
Setsuna1972
(332 posts)Especially with those blowhards the Dallas Cowboys playing
SmittynMo
(3,544 posts)Football - America's pastime, played weekly
DNC - America's future, played every 4 years
No brainer as to which one was more important.
VWolf
(3,944 posts)But there are MANY Americans who are not yet engaged in the political process.
I read somewhere that most don't pay attention until after the world series. That's just sad.
fugop
(1,828 posts)Sure, people WATCHED! I'll give you that. But did they watch ENTHUSIASTICALLY? Clearly, the answer is no. That enthusiasm gap is going to kill the Democrats in November. And just watch: They're going to have to move the polls to smaller venues, too, but it will be because they can't get enough people there. They'll just say it's (airquote) weather related (airquote). And, and, and ...
Paul Ryan is dreamy!
(I hope I don't need a sarcasm tag here ...)
center rising
(971 posts)Football was on one network, the DNC was on 6, so if you want to look at it, the game was outdone by six networks covering the same thing.
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)I also watched part of the RNC and Ryan and Romney and was likely counted as one of the 21.9M. Know thine enemy sort of mentality. And I'm not the only one from the left that did this. Where Mittens proclaims the mentality that I think runs rampant in the GOP. They don't want to watch the DNC events, for whatever reason. Fear that the message it too compelling, fear that the the candidtates will become too disheartened.
So what I'm saying is that of the 21.9M that watched Ryan, many many were Dems that will not be casting their vote in that direction. I would estimate much lower percentage of Reps watched the DNC events.