Dems’ First Night Is Big Draw For African Americans

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, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.

	RATING	NUMBER OF
All Households *	15.1	17,111,710
Persons 2+ *	7.8	22,296,685
Persons 12-17	1.7	417,496
Persons 18-34	4.6	3,156,100
Persons 18-49	5.9	7,678,484
Persons 55+	16.6	10,079,978
African American Households **	24	3,282,817
Hispanic Households **	7.3	869,029
White Households **	14.6	12,751,698
Source: The Nielsen Company (August 25, 2008)
*Combined figures are the sum of the networks during the common hour of coverage. Included networks are ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.
**Ratings for African American, Hispanic and White households are expressed as a percent of those specific universe estimates.

Convention coverage varied by network; all eight networks aired live coverage from approximately 10pm to 11pm EST.

View comparable TV ratings for Day 1 of the 2004 Democratic National Convention (Monday, July 26, 2004).

Read the Los Angeles Times’ coverage of Nielsen’s findings.