McCain Speech Surpasses Palin, Obama on Nets

By Michele Greppi

Early returns indicate the old maverick may be more popular than the young maverick on the Republican presidential ticket.

GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s acceptance speech drew a combined audience of 18.11 million viewers on ABC, CBS and NBC from 10-11 p.m. Thursday, the closing night of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., according to preliminary national data from Nielsen Media Research.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s speech accepting the nomination as vice president was watched by 12.75 million Wednesday night on the broadcast networks.

McCain's tally is dramatically more than the broadcast nets’ combined audience of approximately 12.5 million for speeches by Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Joe Biden at the Democratic convention last week in Denver.

NBC’s coverage easily won the three-way broadcast network race at 10 p.m. with an average 8.06 million viewers. That’s down from 5.78 million on closing night of the GOP gathering in 2004.

CBS placed second with an average 5.08 million viewers, up from the comparable night in 2004, when CBS' convention special was watched by 4.81 million.

ABC averaged 4.97 million viewers, up from 2004 when it closed convention coverage with 4.89 million viewers.

These numbers are subject to significant change when data that accounts for time-zone adjustments is released later today.

PBS' coverage averaged a 2.0 household rating/3 share from 8 to 11 p.m., according to overnight ratings from 52 Nielsen overnight markets.

That’s down from Wednesday night, when proceedings leading up to the convention debut of Gov. Palin earned an average 2.4 rating/4 share. It’s down from the Democrats’ closing night, when Sen. Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech averaged a 2.6/4, and from the 2.1/4 for the Republicans’ closing night in 2004.