More people watched Alaska governor and Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin’s speech Wednesday at the Republican National Convention on Fox News than on any other network, cable or broadcast.
It was the most-watched telecast in the history of cable news political convention coverage.
Fox, which had suffered an uncharacteristic streak of second-place finishes during last week’s Democratic convention, averaged 9.2 million viewers to win the six-way network contest from 10 to 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, when it was competing with ABC, CBS, NBC and cable channels CNN and MSNBC, according to national data from Nielsen Media Research.
Palin’s speech becomes the third most-watched telecast ever for Fox, behind the address by President George W. Bush on the eve of the invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, and the presidential debate by President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry on Aug. 30, 2004.
NBC’s convention coverage, which was commercial-free, finished second at 10 p.m. with an average 7.7 million viewers.
CNN, which dominated during the Democrats’ gathering, averaged 6.2 million viewers for the peak 75 minutes Wednesday night.
ABC’s convention special averaged 5.9 million viewers.
CBS’s broadcast, which also was commercial-free, drew 4.6 million viewers.
MSNBC finished with 3.4 million.
For the prime-time block of 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., Fox averaged 6.34 million viewers. CNN averaged 4.11 million. MSNBC posted an average of 2.17 million.
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(Editor: Baumann. Updated 5:30 p.m. in first two paragraphs.)