Almost 26 million people watched the second night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention -- a 16% increase from 22.3 million viewers on the opening night of the convention.
Tuesday night's speeches, which featured Senator Hillary Clinton's much anticipated keynote address, continued to draw a large proportion of African Americans (12.7% of all African American viewers tuned in).
Viewers age 55 and older also continued to dominate Tuesday night's TV audience, with 20% of all Americans in that age group watching the convention coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One.
| RATING | NUMBER | |
|---|---|---|
| All Households | 17.8 | 20,066,000 |
| Persons 2+ | 9.0 | 25,974,000 |
| Persons 12-17 | 1.9 | 439,000 |
| Persons 18-34 | 4.7 | 3,110,000 |
| Persons 18-49 | 6.6 | 8,646,000 |
| Persons 55+ | 20.0 | 13,829,000 |
| African American Persons 2+ * | 12.7 | 4,592,000 |
| Hispanic Persons 2+ * | 3.2 | 1,350,000 |
| White Persons 2+ * | 9.0 | 19,622,000 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company (August 26, 2008) | ||
| 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 viewers are expressed as a percent of those specific universe estimates. | ||
In comparison to day two of the 2004 convention, which drew 5.9 million viewers, the audience for day two of the 2008 convention was significantly larger (26 million viewers). In 2004, cable networks provided the only TV coverage of the convention.
On Tuesday, August 26, 2008, convention coverage varied by network, with all eight networks noted above airing live coverage from approximately 10pm to 11:15pm EST.
View the full media alert.
Read coverage of Nielsen's findings in The Nation, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, New York Daily News, and Variety.