Ratings are like polls. I’ve seen 17m, 26m and now 33m.
Yea, but how many could actually stand to watch it through to the end? It was sicky gross !
Nielsen reports live viewings and later on adds DVR “time shifting.”
The real story isn’t the household number (rating) but the “share” rating - 71% of tv viewers watched something else in the time slot.
And yes, nearly 3 times as many people watched the Palin-Biden debate.
So even by the highest estimates of viewership the PALIN/biden debate got more than double than the Messiah and a little more than half of the people who voted for Kerry.
Obama has jumped the shark.
They are able to get direct ratings from cable & satellite customers through their *box*. They can estimate the rest. For this reason, they can knock of four points due to me looking for a station that did not have Hussein on and I hit his show four times in a few seconds while surfing.