Did Three Million People Not Turn Off Their TV Quickly Enough?
We’ve already discussed the surprising (to me) news that McCain out-drew Obama for their acceptance speeches: McCain pulled 38.9 million viewers to Obama’s 38.4 million.
I was half-joking earlier when I said I thought it was because those people who had been watching Eli beat the ‘Skins simply didn’t turn off their TV quickly enough. NBC went immediately to the convention from the game, with no post-game analysis or commercials. But there seems to be some merit to that notion.
NBC got 13.6 million viewers for football. CBS got 6.5 million for Big Brother 10 in the 8-9 hour, and then 7.3 for CSI in the 9-10 hour.
So at 10:00, when the speech began, 13.6 people were watching NBC (probably fewer, I guess, since it wasn’t a terrific game), and 7.3 were watching CBS.
NBC had 8 million watch the Convention, to CBS’ 5 million. I happen to prefer NBC’s political coverage to CBS’–but not 37% better, especially not if I’ve had a couple of beers. I would imagine a goodly chunk of those 3 million MORE people who viewed the Convention on NBC simply didn’t change the channel. And given the way NBC moved into the Convention, I’m not entirely convinced those 3 million people stayed.
Not that it matters. I didn’t watch the whole speech, but I agree with the Twitter reported at Marc Ambinder’s site (no longer there) that says Obama aides were hoping a lot of people had stayed over from NFL. It wasn’t a great speech, so the big viewership numbers don’t necessarily help McCain.
It seems to me that what DOES help what’s-his-name is that the Dems have not come out with real bodyslams. It’s just their usual reaction to false accusations: “Oh yead, he said that. Isn’t he a card?” The last time, fellas, it lost you the election.
Oh, thank you for that reasonable explanation, EW! I had just read those figures before coming over here, and found them somewhat depressing.
Too bad the numbers can’t tell who immediately got up and went to the kitchen/bathroom/backyard when the game ended.
If any of these number were to come from Tivo – Tivo will ask if you want to add an hour to any recording of a live (sporting?) event. So people could have recorded it, but not watched it.
The Enquirer is on the ex-business partner. Alex Koppelman at Salon has this:
I’m sure I’ve been a good boy and this is true….
But I think THIS ex-business partner may NOT be the guy who tried to shield his divorce proceedings today.
As Goofy would say, “Kuh-Hult!”
I’ve been watching the excerpts on CNN of the Palin brother in law interview . and all the talk is about tasering kids, illegal hunting, bad service record etc.- I am half-convinced that the Republicans paid him to go on CNN, almost as a way of making him look as bad as possible and shift the focus of the story from the good civil servant that actually did get fired for doing the right thing.
Oh, I think there is some fresh “walking around” money floating around up in Alaska right about now; who know whether any of it is in his pockets or not. It is hard to tell what is going on when they all act like Jethro Bodines.
I was watching Chef Ramsey’s Kitchen Disasters or whatever its called on our local FOX channel, when all of a sudden FOX takes over my TV and forces me to watch McCain’s speech. I didn’t want to watch but every single channel was showing the speech. I think the only other option was watching a repeat of the 90210 episode from Monday, and I just couldn’t do that to myself.
Fully half of the NFL viewers who stumbled-upon the McCain speech did not stay until the end. The number of people who either fell asleep in the middle, or turned it off for other reasons, is in the millions. There is not any chance on earth the McCain’s numbers reflect reality. No way.
OT, but serious: US Treasury takes over Freddie and Fannie. From the NY Times…..
Senior officials from the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve on Friday informed top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants, that the government is preparing a plan to seize the two companies and place them in a conservatorship, officials and company executives briefed on the discussions said.
Those foreign governments and bondholders are such WHINERS!!!
Every one of my fellow Obama supporters tuned in to watch both Failin and McSame. Apparently from the same urge that compels people to ogle a car crash.
Sen. McCain comes across as sincere and clearly hopes for the best, but let’s be honest here – he’s a dimming bulb, a man on the wane.
His prime missed the frame of our time.
I saw it myself, right after the game.
I’d rather watch commercials than republicans.
McClatchy has a piece up about the GOP enforcement of message discipline even during the
Supreme SovietNational Convention at which the delegates supposedly reign supreme:Apologies if this was pointed out on a previous thread today that I haven’t yet scanned. Life had other plans for me.
Did anyone count all the people that watched Obama’s speech over the Internet? Or do those people not get counted, like the people who have only cell phones and no land line phone do not get polled?
Now, did the stats take into account all the packed Obama house parties and the empty, near empty McCain parties?
great minds think alike
you seem to think like me
that might not be healthy
jus sayin, is all …
(wink)
If McSame had given the speech of his life (he didn’t), the speech of his generation (he couldn’t), the speech for the ages (Snort! Yeah, right!), then those 38.9 million viewers might have been something to crow about.
Instead, to quote Abraham Lincoln:
“He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.”
Or to quote Samuel Johnson:
“He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others.”
Tuning in and finding out that one is not even remotely interested in what’s showing is perhaps more important than finding something one likes.
38.9 million viewers who yawned and went to bed. That was my take on it.
and they say kids aren’t interested in politics. from a local write-up on the walter reed middle school photo mix-up:
It turns out plenty of Reed Middle School youngsters were watching, however.
Eduardo Morales, 11, was tuned in. “There was nothing else on TV last night,” he said.
Brian Perez, 14, let out a yell when he saw the picture of the school’s two-story concrete main building looming behind McCain.
“He was yelling, ‘Walter Reed is on TV!’ It was cool,” said his brother, James Perez, 13.
School officials were not amused, however.
wanna bet the people who hosted parties during Obama’s speech didn’t have quite so much leftover rigatoni ???
do the math
if Obama had 100,000 parties, and the average number of attendees was 21, you would be talking about, um, well, an awful lot of uncounted viewers*
(wink)
*2 million or so, actually
I dunno. I tuned in to watch just so that I could compare and contrast. We yelled every time they showed a person of color rather than drink, ya know. It even got to be fun when we got to recognize each of them too.
We liked seeing the people yawning or picking their teeth (figuratively speaking). They sure didn’t look like the folks at Obama’s speech.
After Obama’s speech I felt like I had seen something historic. I felt that way when I saw Jon Stewart on Crossfire too.
With McCain I wondered why they had a big green background on him and then we figured out the image was one of his houses. We spent some time discussing that. While he was talking. Laughed my ass off when I found out about the school today. I do you explain that and expect to be taken seriously.
I’ll bet an awful lot of people tuned in to Palin to see just who she was. I think Babs said it best. Starts with b and rhymes with witch.
That poor baby. Let him go to bed. Tell us about him but please we’d understand a loud arena is no place for such a little one.
Last week I was absolutely surprised when my daughter and my niece (21 and 30) told me they had watched Obama’s speech. We’re in Canada so your politics aren’t quite so much on their minds (my daughter is bemused by my long term interest). They said they stood up and cheered, it made them so excited.
Anyone think McCain managed that? Heck, even in the arena there were plenty of awkward moments when the crowd didn’t realize they were supposed to cheer and they’re the rabid few and faithful.
Good for your nieces. They stood up and cheered as well as the 84,ooo folks in that stadium (I was one of them). You could feel Invesco stadium shake when folks were stamping on the stadium floor during both Al Gore’s and Obama’s speeches. It was truly moving.
Old, young and in between. The crowd at Invesco represented the diversity in our country, the Republican convention did not.
I watched the last night of the RNC with five 20 somethings. They were amazed by what a snooze the convention was. How the cameras panned the crowd always going back to the 10 African Americans in the crowd. How most the folks at the convention were over 65 (few young folks). We were also surprised that few people picked up on the Vets who held signs up focusing on McCains lack of support for Vets. We were watching C-Spans coverage and the camera person went back to the Vets holding up protest signs several times. The MSM seems like they did not pick up on this. Anyone see any reports about the Vets protesting against McCain during McCain’s speech.
I watched every night. It was so boring yet I continued to watch in shock. One of the nights I did get these 20 somethings to switch back and forth between Ron Paul and the RNC. They were all amazed by what Ron Paul and Jessie Ventura had to say.
Yeah, Leon I think a lot of people felt like you and my daughter and niece.
They want to live in that world that Obama spoke about.
Energy independence in 10 years? Yeeeargh!
Have to say though, speaking with my brother, who incidentally is black, he is far more pessimistic. He doesn’t think people will actually vote for Obama and that if, by some miracle, he does get elected, he will survive to serve.
Sigh.