Mitt Romney’s Ratings Tank

Posted on September 1, 2012 at 2:00 pm by JM Ashby

According to TVNewser, 13 million fewer viewers watched Mitt Romney deliver his acceptance speech than watched John McCain in 2008.

via PoliticsUSA

Mitt Romney’s convention speech was watched by 25 million Americans, which is 13 million fewer viewers than watched John McCain accept the Republican nomination in 2008.

Mitt Romney’s inability to captivate the nation resulted in a gain of only 5 million viewers from the second night to the third night of the Republican convention. The Romney campaign was counting on widespread viewership, outside of the GOP, but 39% of their audience came from Fox News. Fox was the top network with over 9 million viewers, followed by ABC (4.44 million), NBC (3.85 million), CBS (3.73 million), CNN (2.33 million), and MSNBC (1.88 million). In contrast, over 38 million Americans watched John McCain’s speech in 2008.

Mitt Romney only drew in 5 million more viewers than Paul Ryan, meaning it’s possible Honey Boo Boo beat Romney in ratings too.

If only Honey Boo Boo’s fans knew Clint Eastwood was going to scold an empty chair, they may have changed the channel for a few minutes.

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  • muselet

    Deadline Hollywood:

    While fast nationals are unreliable for live events such as convention coverage, the drops from the fast nationals four years ago are so steep that the trend is likely to stay when the finals numbers are released. Right now, the broadcast of Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech preceded by an appearance by Clint Eastwood, is averaging a 1.0/3 in 18-49 on ABC and CBS, down 38% and 29%, respectively, from 2008 when John McCain was the nominee, and a 0.8/2 on NBC, down 76%.

    Numbers like that get shows, even summer series, cancelled. I’m not gloating because the Ds will probably show a similar drop (take-home lesson: political conventions don’t much matter any more), but hoo boy there’s not a lot of excitement about Mitt Romney, is there?

    –alopecia