NEW YORK (AP) - In terms of drawing a television audience, John McCain and Barack Obama are in a virtual dead heat.
Nielsen Media Research said that 38.9 million people watched McCain accept the Republican presidential nomination on six commercial networks Thursday. PBS estimates its audience for McCain was 3.5 million.
Last week, Obama's speech in Denver was seen by 38.4 million people on commercial networks and 4 million people on PBS.
Add those numbers together — and they each had an estimated audience of 42.4 million. With Sarah Palin's speech on Wednesday, more people watched the Republican convention this week than the Democrats the previous week. |