Say Anything Blog

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s address at the Democratic convention attracted almost 26 million viewers Tuesday night, according to Nielsen Media Research.

That number is up significantly from the 22 million who watched night one of the convention on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, BET, and TV One, according to Nielsen.

Among the broadcast networks, NBC led with 5.98 million viewers, ABC followed with 4.76 million, and CBS had 3.82 million. A comparison with 2004 is difficult because the broadcast networks did not cover the second night of the Democratic convention that year.

Among the cable news networks, CNN again led the competition, averaging 4.80 million viewers from 10 to 11 p.m. Fox News delivered 3.48 million and MSNBC netted 2.57 million. All three cable news networks are up significantly compared with 2004.

Unlike the broadcast networks, the cable channels are covering the conventions all evening, although they spend much of the time analyzing the event instead of showing the speeches. In prime time, CNN averaged 3.40 million viewers, Fox News averaged 3.36 million and MSNBC averaged 1.99 million.