Football on NBC helped: McCain acceptance speech out scores Obama's in ratings

Presidential candidate John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention drew more television viewers than his rival Barack Obama attracted at the Democratic party's event last week, according to preliminary ratings from Nielsen Media Research.

Across all broadcast networks Thursday, Sen. McCain’s speech ended the night with a 4.8 rating/7 share, compared to Sen. Obama’s 4.3/7 average, according to overnight numbers from metered households in 55 U.S. markets measured by Nielsen. These ratings are preliminary, however, and are subject to change.

NBC’s coverage of Sen. McCain’s speech started directly at the tail end of the opening game of NFL season, with the speech pulling in a 6.3 rating/10 share, topping Sen. Obama’s speech last week by 26%. That lead-in may have boosted audiences who last night turned out in droves to watch Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin introduce herself to the country.

ABC’s showing of the McCain speech averaged a 4.5/7, down 2% from the same night of the Democratic convention last week, while CBS’ coverage took in a 3.4/5, an increase of 3%.

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/09/mccain_tv_ratings_beat_obama_i.php

the GOP had made a blunder by scheduling the speech on opening night of football. Now they look like geniuses?

empty stage ... after the game was over, I turned the TV off.

Did it cut away from the post-game when McCain started?

I know that Obama was on when the Browns were playing ... the Browns were losing big time, but they were still on ...