Last night’s penultimate hour of convention coverage drew far fewer viewers than the night that Sarah Palin spoke in Minneapolis:
Paul Ryan, the Republican vice presidential nominee, drew fewer viewers than the 37.2 million that nominee Sarah Palin attracted four years ago.
The final hour of convention coverage last night attracted slightly more than 20 million viewers, according to Nielsen data reported by two websites, TV Newser and TV by the Numbers.
Palin, then governor of Alaska, was new to national politics when John McCain chose her as running mate in 2008, generating public anticipation over her speech. Ryan is well known as chairman of the House Budget Committee and a leader of GOP efforts to reform Medicare. He was among the people widely mentioned as possible nominee.
News Corp.’s Fox News led the networks with 7.7 million viewers, according to the reports. Comcast Corp’s NBC network was second with 4.15 million in the 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. hour, when Ryan spoke.
(…)
Among the other news outlets covering the convention,Walt Disney Co’s ABC attracted 2.86 million and CBS Corp’s network averaged 2.56 million, according to the two websites. On cable, Comcast’s MSNBC attracted 1.44 million viewers and CNN, owned by Time Warner Inc. grabbed 1.34 million.
Actually the 20 million or so viewers for the 10pm hour last night was roughly equivalent to the viewership for Tuesday night’s broadcast featuring Ann Romney and Chris Christie. Perhaps this is another sign that voters are tuning this election out.
