Day 2 RNC viewership below Dems

The Republican National Convention drew fewer viewers during its second day of coverage than the Democrats last week.

According to Nielsen, 21.5 million across broadcast and cable networks tuned in to see speeches by President Bush and Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman endorsing Republican nominee John McCain.

That's down 17% from the second night of the DNC, when Hillary Clinton took the stage.

Compared with the RNC's Day 2 four years ago (which was seen by 22.2 million), the night was down 3%.

The reduced audience turnout is probably to be expected to some degree since coverage of RNC's Day 1 was largely preempted by hurricane Gustav coverage (stalling the momentum that tends to build during successive nights of event coverage) and Bush spoke via satellite last night rather than appear in person at the event. Also, Clinton's speech last week was highly anticipated with viewers wondering if she'd successfully pass the baton to her former rival.   

Network-by-network breakdown will be released tomorrow, nationals are delayed. But by that time, however, everybody will be focused on the performance of a certain Alaska governor anyway.

Read all of THR's convention coverage