Palin draws 37 million viewers, just shy of Obama

US: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, unknown to most Americans a week ago, nearly matched Barack Obama’s record TV audience with her feisty speech on Wednesday accepting the Republican nomination for vice president, topping 37 million U.S. viewers.

The 38.4 million viewers averaged by Obama as he accepted the Democratic nomination for president last Thursday in Denver is believed to stand as the biggest commercial TV audience ever for a single night of a U.S. political convention, Nielsen said on Thursday.

Palin’s speech, as she went on the attack against Obama and cast herself as a political reformer, also drew a far bigger audience than Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden, a Delaware senator, who averaged 24 million viewers with his acceptance speech last Wednesday.

LOS ANGELES, Friday, Reuters