EMAIL DETAILS

Biden draws more TV viewers than Obama, Romney
Forget Bill Clinton and Clint Eastwood: The biggest draw at the political conventions turned out to be Vice President Biden.
Nearly 15% of all TV viewers tuned in to Biden's speech at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, more than those who watched President Obama and Mitt Romney, according to a new analysis by Nielsen<http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/politics/convention-speeches-by-the-numbers/>, the ratings company. Biden got a boost from people over 55 years old, with slightly more than 27% of this group watching his speech on Sept. 6 accepting the VP nomination.
Among the presidential candidates, Obama had a slight edge over Romney. Nielsen found about 14% of all TV viewers watched the president, compared with about 13% for his GOP rival.
Now, about those special big-name speakers at the party confabs. Clinton drew more TV viewers than Eastwood and did better than the actor-director among women, men and people of all age groups, according to the Nielsen data.
Still, the overall trend for political convention viewership on TV is slipping. About 6 in 10 U.S. households -- roughly 65.4 million homes -- watched at least one of the party gatherings this year. That's down from 73.2 million homes in 2008, Nielsen says.