Democratic convention viewership up for Hillary

UPDATED: Hillary Clinton's speech during the second night of the Democratic National Convention received an enormous audience compared to the same night four years ago.

Combining broadcast and cable tallies, about 26 million viewers tuned in to watch Clinton, exceeding the convention's opening night viewership featuring Michelle Obama by 17%.

Day Two of the convention wasn't even carried live by the broadcast networks four years ago. As a measure of media interest in Barack Obama in general and Clinton's speech in particular, this time all the major broadcasters and cable news nets went live, resulting in 341% more viewers than Day Two in 2004. Despite the added competition from broadcast, all the cable news nets enjoyed strong viewership gains.

CNN was seen by 4.8 million during 10-11:15 p.m. during Clinton's speech (up 64% compared to four years ago). Fox News (up 89%) had 3.5 million. MSNBC had 2.6 million (up 39%). Among broadcast nets, NBC had 6 million, ABC 4.8 million and CBS 3.8 million. Note that CNN managed to beat CBS and ABC in viewers.

Reactions to the speech: "Adequate but not exactly inspiring" says Chicago Tribune columnist... "Good but not quite very good," says U.S. News & World Report. "Hillary gets thumbs up -- mostly,"  says the Wall Street Journal.