Here is the final tally showing how many viewers watched the political conventions on TV. Fox News was the big winner. The DNC had 70.2 million viewers and the RNC 65.9.
In terms of total viewers, FNC outdrew its closest competitor, NBC, by 7 million viewers.
The highest overall night was Fox’s, during the third night of the Republican National Convention (9.1 million viewers), marking its average numbers 5.34 million viewers. NBC placed second with 5.03 million, followed by ABC (3.66 million), CBS (3.4 million), CNN (3.1 million) and MSNBC (2.97 million).
In the adults 25-54 demo, both CBS and ABC’s broadcast coverage outmatched CNN and MSNBC, to take the Bronze and fourth place, respectively. The networks trailed NBC (1.94 million) and FNC (1.42 million), with ABC averaging 1.32 million and CBS averaging 1.26 million. CNN’s six-night average was 1.15 million, while MSNBC trailed with 1.01 million.
But, the real winner was a show called Honey Boo Boo. It’s a show about self-proclaimed rednecks. The star of the show is a child beauty show contestant. The show had more viewers in it’s Wednesday night time slot than the RNC that night and tied Bill Clinton for his great speech.
Is this an indication of American tastes in a time of economic crisis or an indictment of political conventions? Personally, I believe it’s the latter. The American public is not fond of politicians today. To watch them strut and posture and lie on camera is not something that interests most Americans today. It’s become an expensive form of self-engrandizement for the people on camera. An audtion for who’s next in line for the coming elections.
Nothing says it better than this:
Meet Honey Boo Boo and Glitzy the pig, the TV ratings winners
