Nielsen has estimated that more than 38 million Americans watched Barack Obama’s acceptance speech on Thursday night, and that does not include the 3.5 million people that (according to PBS) watched the event on public television.
more people watched Obama speak than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final “American Idol” or the Academy Awards this year.
Every night of the Democratic convention, viewership was way up compared to 2004. Hillary Clinton’s speech on Tuesday drew at least 26 million viewers.
Talk about a tough act to follow. John McCain is scheduled to accept the Republican nomination next Thursday evening, when two other networks will be showing NFL games on the first night of the professional football season.