Democrats outdraw Republicans on TV

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL -- So far, the Democrats have outdrawn the Republicans for television viewership of their presidential nominating conventions.

On Day Two of the RNC affair, the first day of real interest, the TV audience ran 4.3 million smaller than viewership for Day Two of the Democratic convention in Denver, accoording to Nielsen. This year's Republican Day Two also fell 600,000 short of Day Two of the GOP convention in 2004 that nominated President Bush for reelection.
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More women than men -- by a margin of 11.2 million to 9.5 million -- watched the second day of the Republican show, which featured former Sen. Fred Thompson and Sen. Joe Lieberman at the podium. The same trend held true for Day Two of the Democrats.

African American viewership of the GOP convention (2.1 million) has fallen far short of the black audience for the Democratic convention (4.6 million).

The numbers could improve tonight: Sarah Palin, the party's vice presdiential nominee-to-be, takes the podium in the midst of a whirlwind of news about her and her family. The audience for Democrat Hillary Clinton (26 million last week) ran second to only the audience for the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama (38.5 million.)