It turns out that Sarah Palin did not only rock the GOP convention. She rocked our living rooms as well according to the Nielson ratings wire reports.
Sarah Palin Popularity Soars!
Sarah Palin’s moment in history attracted more television viewers than any night of any GOP convention in history. Her television ratings rivaled Barack Obama’s speech last week as Right Pundits predicted would happen.
She was just 1.1 million viewers under Obama’s audience of 38.3 million but she commanded a relatively higher percentage of viewers who were watching TV on the respective nights. Barracuda Sarah has the wow factor.
She drew in this audience while her speech was covered on only six TV networks. Obama was carried by ten. Perhaps significantly Sarah Palin attracted a larger female audience than he did in Denver, and she attracted a larger Hispanic audience. She attracted more of the elderly, more family households, and more white voters. However she attracted far less African-American viewers which explains the 1.1 million difference between the two speeches.
Our article yesterday on the Palin explosion attracted the usual partisans from left and right. But I was struck by the warmth expressed by those who were previously disillusioned by politics, and by the gushing reviews from people outside the country. Here is one new Sarah Palin fan from Europe:
As a Brit: She’s the most exciting political speaker I’ve heard for a long time. Wish we had someone, anyone like her over here. Don’t agree with all her politics, but a strong America is what we hope for here, and she and John McCain exude confidence and decisiveness. I like that. More power to your elbow Sarah Palin! I think we’ll always know what you stand for even when we don’t all agree with you!
Here are some more details of her smashing success on TV:
- The Sara Palin speech generated 37.2 million viewers, just a 1.1 million viewers short of Barak Obama’s record-breaking speech on Day 4 of the Democratic Convention. The Palin speech was carried on only six networks while the Obama speech was carried on ten (including BET, TV One, Univision and Telemundo).
- Palin attracted a large female audience (19.5 million women, or 4.9 million more than Day 3 of the Democratic Convention).
- Ratings for viewers 55+ (25.2) continue to be about ten times higher than for teens (2.2)
- Day 3 for the GOP attracted more Hispanic viewers (1.4 million) than Day 3 of the Democratic Convention (1.2 million), even though Univision and Telemundo did not carry the speech.
This is breaking news. More details will be posted here.
Sarah Palin TV (Video)
September 4th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Wow? Will we see a Palin bounce in the polls? Remains to be seen as polling won’t take the speech into account until at least Friday. But I can’t wait!
September 4th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
The first evidence of an RNC bounce:
CBS News just called it a TIE. And doesn’t even factor in Palin’s speech. CBS News was +8 Obama just on Monday.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I didn’t realize until a while ago that Sarah Palin’s teleprompter was broken and she winged the speech.
That makes it even more impressive!
September 4th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Seems Many people who missed her speech searched for it today. The search query “sarah palin speech video” was the #2 query in Google today
September 4th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Beth, that will become fun folklore thanks to RedState. But conflicting reports leave the matter still open.
G, we are quite aware of the Sarah madness. You will actually find our post using that google search which has slipped three spots from yesterday.
September 4th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I think its an interesting factor in the speech considering that many of Obama’s people say that she just read her speech. Apparently, she didn’t
September 4th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
As if Obama doesn’t have a teleprompter! Ha!
September 4th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
in all fairness, it was her first speech as opposed to obama’s 20th-30th over the last months. everybody wanted to get to know her. i’m not sure she’ll ever get that sort of ratings again.
my curiosity is satisfied. probably won’t tune into another speech of her’s but will definitely check the debates.
that teleprompter myth has already been debunked. it was working just fine.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Jay, you Obama trolls sure like to spin things. The “fair” comparison wouldn’t be to Obama’s speech. The fair comparison would be to Bidne’s speech. She rocked the hell out of Biden, that’s for sure.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
ignatius,
do you call any lefty on here a troll?
last time i checked this was a discussion forum, therefore it should be open for different views and opinions, right? as opposed to some other fanatics around here i’m trying to be fair and considerate, but also driving my point home like everybody else. even if it’s hard for you to accept this, please keep your cool and don’t make a fool of yourself. thank you.
and yes, she made more of an impact than biden. i’m the first one to admit it. i don’t even have a recollection of that biden speech.
we’ll see whether mccain will be able to surpass obama’s speech.
btw, what’s tonight’s speaker schedule? anyone know what time obama’s on (o’reilly)?
September 4th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
ignatius,
one more thing. i didn’t “spin” this, this very article makes the comparison between obama and palin, i just elaborated on it.
as you can see, i wasn’t the author of this article, mccain was.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
jay, you sure a sensitive. Troll isn’t an insult in the blog-world, last i checked.
Obama already aired in the East Coast. He admitted that the troop surge succeeded in many respects, though he stopped short of calling it a success. I suspect to hear about that from McCain tonight.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Jay, you can find the schedule by scrolling down a bit on the homepage. McCain is speaking at 9pm EDT tonight.
About the bickering, there are multiple levels of comparison and spin to make between the two tickets. Mainly because experience and WOW are flipped.
So on one level, of course we compare Palin and Biden because that’s what the org chart tells us to do, but on another level Palin and Obama can definitely be compared on the WOW factor. That’s one of the reasons McCain did it. Non-partisans will now be able to pull that lever for McCain without feeling just a tinge guilty about preventing history.
September 4th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Well, I can quote several lines from her speech. She gave a memorable speech with substance that people remember.
I’ve heard ppl today saying they liked it when she said one thing or the other.
I’m trying to remember a line from one of Obama’s speeches. You know. Like you remember from great speeches. …
I don’t know that I’ve ever heard anyone say they liked it when he said something or the other. Just that he gave a ‘great speech’.
September 4th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I am thrilled to finally have someone that I (& the rest of the female Republicans) can relate to on a personal level. Republican women are always put down because we are portrayed as the submissive wives of male chauvinist husbands who don’t really have a voice of their own. I’ve always found it ironic that to be open-minded, one must think what the left tells you. Thank you Sarah Palin!!!!
My 11 year old daughter sat and watched Sarah’s speech in its entirety. She said she wished she was old enough to vote. Now she hopes that she’ll get to cast her first presidential vote for Palin in 8 years!!
September 4th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Ignatius Reilly-
The “fair� comparison wouldn’t be to Obama’s speech. The fair comparison would be to Bidne’s speech.
Then why all the constant comparison of Palin’s “experience” versus Obama’s? “He’s never run anything, he was just a lil’ old community organizer.” Yes, John McCain was promoted to officer and “ran” something in the military, only after daddy got him sweet hookups. He crashed so many planes, womaninzed so much, they didn’t know what to do with him so they kept promoting him. Palin was not nominated for president, so I think the fair thing to do is to compare Obama and McCain. Period.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
I think it is great to have a woman. She is a great woman. I think women will lead better because they are not as about war. The corruption and earmarks are bad, but she’s much better than McCain. Man, is that guy old and boring.
September 4th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
It really warms my heart when McCain says “my friend.” It’s his signature line and it makes us all feel engaged. The message of McCain’s speech: McCain is here to fight for white america!
September 4th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Stars&Bars
It really warms my heart when McCain says “my friend.�
Your heart is not warm. It’s acid reflux.
September 5th, 2008 at 8:58 am
To have a woman reflect the ideas of a strong defender of the American Spirit and standing against the wind coming out of Washington is truly a gift. Sarah says it all and we need to “wake up’ America.
September 5th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Wow, amazingly the Neilson numbers from McCain’s speech show tha McCain also outdrew Obama’s numbers. How can this be? How can the greatest speech since Lincoln at Gettysburg get outdrawn by an old man who is a medicore speaker at best? McCain got a 4.8/7 share and Obama got a 4.3/7 share. Dems, be worried.
September 5th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Another shocking number, Palin (who the liberals are claiming is a mean, vicious, attack dog who is a polarizing figure) has higher favorables than Obama in latest polls.
Liberals just don’t get it. I was one for a long time, and when you’re in that world, filled with academia types, you really have no clue what appeals to the average American. Biden sure isn’t it. Obama has a lot of it, but Palin’s got more, folks.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
[...] Palin Ratings [...]
November 29th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Sorry to bust your bubble but Barack STILL won the ratings for convention night. Seems PBS and C-SPAN wasn’t included in the tally for most watched speeches. Barack supporters had decided not to watch the Democratic convention on MSNBC, FOX or CNN because of all the talking the pundits do. They really bug! We watched the convention on C-Span and PBS which, unfortunately didn’t get counted. So if you really want the facts, little miss pittbull STILL lost out on the ratings for convention night because if they had tallied in PBS and C=Span, Barack comes out on top. But it really doesn’t matter huh? CAUSE HE WON!!!!!!!!!!!
September 6th, 2009 at 12:57 am
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Very enthralling. Where can I find out more?…