There has been concern about how DNC viewership would be affected by last night's opening NFL game and NBC dropping its coverage of their primetime convention coverage. Well, the initial ratings totals are in, and it seems that the popularity of the Big Dog helped stave off any major dropoff.
As Mediabistro reports:
And even with football on NBC, the 10pm hour of the DNC’s night two still topped night two of the RNC a week ago: 20,622,000 vs. 20,049,000
The breakdown is as follows:
•DNC Day Two / Sept. 5, 10-11pm:
ABC: 4,587,224 viewers (1,728,724 in 25-54)
CBS: 4,410,140 viewers (1,723,928 in 25-54)
MSNBC: 4,387,567 viewers (1,419,115 in 25-54)
CNN: 4,134,662 viewers (1,543,771 in 25-54)
FNC: 3,102,606 viewers (813,816 in 25-54)
Compared to Day 2 of the DNC in 2008, ABC, CBS, MSNBC and FNC are up. The growth can be attributed to one less network (NBC) to watch. It could also be attributed to the fact that CNN is down -23% in total viewers and down -33% in A25-54 viewers, vs. 2008.
Please note that this total does not yet include PBS and some smaller cable channels. When this initial number was reported for Day 1, it was about 22 million which increased to 26.2 when all channels were included.
Once we have the finals, the gap between the DNC and RNC will be greater. For their Day 1, the RNC total grew less from just over 20 million to 22.3 million with all channels totalled, because they get much less viewership on PBS.
I will update when the full numbers are out from Nielsen, but Day 2 is going to beat the RNC easily and will likely only be a dropoff of a couple million from DNC Day 1, even going up against the NFL kickoff.
UPDATE:
With the final ratings for all channels in, the DNC Day 2 beat the RNC 25.1 million to 21.9 million.
Not only did the clobber the other side with the added obstacle of the NFL, but it's also only a 1.1 million dropoff from Day 1 of the DNC.
http://blog.nielsen.com/...
An estimated 25.1 million people watched the second night of the 2012 Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, September 5. The second night of the DNC was carried live from Charlotte, North Carolina across seven networks and featured a keynote speech by former President Bill Clinton.
The DNC was up against a formidable opponent. The NFL kicked-off (literally) its season with the New York Giants hosting the Dallas Cowboys on NBC (8:41 PM to 11:30 PM ET). The game averaged 23.9 million viewers.