CONVENTION RATINGS….About 20 million households watched John Kerry’s speech last night. I don’t know how that compares to four years ago, but apparently ratings for the convention have been down 10-20% on each of the previous nights.
I’m surprised. I know that interest in the conventions has been declining steadily pretty much forever, but I really thought that ratings would buck that trend this year because the race is so tight and so important. But no: CSI is the ratings winner as usual.
Why the lack of interest even though people seem more engaged than normal this year? Maybe it’s because the true believers on both sides don’t really need to watch. The number of undecided voters is smaller than it’s ever been at this point in a race, and maybe those are the voters who drive big ratings?
Or maybe people actually aren’t nearly as engaged as we think. I mean, it seems like they are to me, but maybe I’m confusing lots of trash talking with actual widespread interest. At any rate, it’s hard to square “the most important election of our lifetimes” with a 20% drop in ratings.
