UPDATE: Clinton/DNC Wednesday gets 25.1m viewers (beats RNC and NFL)

[Likely Voter]

UPDATED with final Nielsens
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/2012/09/06/democratic-convention-beats-football-ratings/SuSijt4JFpNemn0SeAKaOL/story.html

Democratic convention beats football in ratings

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.

Now I am even more surprised that Clinton beat football, 2008 DNC and the RNC

[Yank2133]

The game did suck though......

[All life is a blur of Republicans and meat.]

Interesting.

[GM Griffin]

This reaffirms the age-old fact that Clinton > Football.

Seriously, this is excellent news.

[後援会]

20.5 million for Clinton vs. 20 million for Ryan?

I mean, I'm not actually horrified. FFS, it's BILL CLINTON. A popular, former president. And perhaps one of America's few successful politicians. Up against a Wisconsin Congressman from Whatkesha.

I actually expected to get crushed a lot harder. Largely because I expected that a lot more people would tune into Clinton than Michelle (which was not the case).

[All life is a blur of Republicans and meat.]

20.5 million for Clinton vs. 20 million for Ryan?

I mean, I'm not actually horrified. FFS, it's BILL CLINTON. A popular, former president. And perhaps one of America's few successful politicians. Up against a Wisconsin Congressman from Whatkesha.

I actually expected to get crushed a lot harder. Largely because I expected that a lot more people would tune into Clinton than Michelle (which was not the case).

People like football.

[Likely Voter]

As a point of context, 27.2M watched the opening game from last year on Sept. 8 (Packers v Saints).

I thought Clinton was only going to get maybe 15M or so. I am sure the DNC is happy with the numbers. But the GOP is likely also happy that Clinton had to compete with the NFL. Otherwise he probably would have brought in 25M or more.

[Bacon King]

Honestly, I'm really surprised more people watched Bill's speech than the game. How many more people do you think would have tuned in if it wasn't for football?

[Lief]

Very good numbers! Now we can only hope that he swayed some people.

[MorningInAmerica]

http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/09/06/ratings-bill-clinton-dnc/

Ratings: Bill Clinton scores for Democrats, edging NFL and Republicans

With the National Football League season’s first game on NBC, the Democrats were battling more than just the Republicans on Wednesday night — at least in the ratings war. And while more than 20.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the Giants and the Cowboys face off, Bill Clinton’s speech drew virtually an identical amount, 20.6 million — though he couldn’t match Michelle Obama’s television audience from Day 1. Moreover, for the second night in a row, the Democrats edged the Republicans in the number of eyeballs that tuned in to this year’s conventions. (Twenty million people tuned in to see Paul Ryan give his convention speech last week.)

The figures were down, however, compared to Day 2 of the 2008 convention, when 22.2 million people tuned in to hear Hillary Clinton make her address, endorsing her one-time rival, Barack Obama.

I am surprised. Going up against football I thought they would see a much bigger drop vs. 2008.

Politico disagrees with the link you posted and seems to think the Cowboys/Giants game got 23.9 million viewers to just over 20 million viewers for Clinton. Down for the NFL, but not by as much earlier reported.

"23.9 million people watched the NFL season opener between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys on NBC last night, more than the entire audience for former President Bill Clinton's convention speech across the five other major broadcast and cable networks, according to early Nielsen fast nationals from NBC Sports." http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/09/more-people-watched-nfl-than-clinton-134722.html?hp=r19

This happens fairly often. Initial numbers reported early in the day after speeches are frequently altered throughout the day as more data comes in.

[Likely Voter]

I've updated the OP. Final numbers from Nielsen show Clinton got 25.1 vs. just over 20M for the second half of the game.

[Lief]

Wow, so even with football, they basically tied the 2nd/3rd night numbers from last year. Very impressive.

[All life is a blur of Republicans and meat.]

Holy crap.

[a Person]

Um, I think you mean 25.1 million viewers.
Not 25.1 viewers.
That would be ... odd.

[True Federalist]

Um, I think you mean 25.1 million viewers.
Not 25.1 viewers.
That would be ... odd.

0.1 viewer could be someone multitasking ten tasks.

[Likely Voter]

Fixed title

Final Ratings for Obama are still not in. I will guess 32M (down from his 38M in 2008), but more than Romney's 30M