GOP Convention Highest Rated Since 1960

Another little something for the media thumb-suckers to chew on. Note the lame attempt at humor in the headline.

More than 41 million Americans watched John McCain deliver his acceptance speech Thursday night, essentially reaching the same number of viewers that Barack Obama did last week, according to Nielsen Media Research.

In a closely-watched ratings race, Mr. McCain edged out his running mate Sarah Palin, who reached 37.2 million viewers on Wednesday night.

Mr. McCain’s speech was watched by 38.9 million viewers on the three broadcast networks, three cable news channels, and two Spanish-language channels, according to Nielsen. That figure is slightly ahead of the 38.3 million who watched Mr. Obama last Thursday on those eight channels plus BET and TV One.

The speeches were also broadcast by PBS, C-SPAN and other channels that are not covered in Nielsen’s estimate. PBS averaged 3.5 million viewers in prime time when Mr. Obama spoke last Thursday, and averaged 2.7 million viewers in prime time when Mr. McCain spoke yesterday.

This week’s convention, which was cut short on Monday due to the landfall of Hurricane Gustav, ranks as the most-watched Republican convention since 1960, when Nielsen began measuring the events.