Obama shatters Nielsen ratings

The best news from an overall excellent Democratic Convention: 38 MILLION people watched Obama's speech on Thursday night (more than the opening ceremony of the Olympics, more than the American Idol finale!) I'm sure plenty of them were planning to vote for him anyway (like me!), but there has to be some curious and undecided folks among that mighty number.

The convention itself was also a ratings hit, especially for CNN:

Through four days, the Democratic convention was seen in an average of 22.5 million households. No other convention — Republican or Democratic — had been seen in as many homes since Nielsen began keeping these records for the Kennedy-Nixon campaign in 1960.
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The acceptance speech was a particular triumph for CNN, which clearly beat the three big broadcasters head-to-head on a news event for the first time ever. An estimated 8.1 million people watched on CNN Thursday.