Palin draws 37 million viewers, just shy of Obama

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - More than 37 million U.S. TV viewers tuned in to watch Sarah Palin accept the Republican nomination for vice president on Wednesday, just shy of the record set last week by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, Nielsen Media Research reported.

The 38.4 million-viewer average for Obama's address last Thursday at a Denver football stadium is believed to be the biggest television audience ever for a single night of a U.S. political convention, and Palin's tally of 37.2 million came close to that.

But she appears to have set a new Republican benchmark by easily surpassing the 27.6 million viewers drawn by President George W. Bush at the end of the Republican National Convention in 2004, when he was nominated for a second term, a Nielsen analyst told Reuters.

Palin's feisty 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.

The high tune-in for Palin was no doubt bolstered by the curiosity factor surrounding the first-term Alaska governor, who was thrust from obscurity onto the national stage last Friday when she was named John McCain's surprise pick for a running mate.

Despite a flurry of recent disclosures about her past political and personal intrigues, including news that her unmarried, teenage daughter is pregnant, Palin was heartily received by Republican convention delegates as she made her national prime-time TV debut.

"Many more people watched that speech than normally watch speeches for conventions," said Robert Thompson, a media scholar at Syracuse University. "People made a point to tune in to see who is this mystery woman, who not only has been nominated to run as vice president but now also is part of all these delicious stories."

Her address in St. Paul, Minnesota, marked the high point of a Republican convention scaled back on its first day, Monday, as Hurricane Gustav threatened the U.S. Gulf Coast.