The traditional way to schedule a nationwide live event is to schedule it very late in the evening on the east coast so that it shows up at a reasonable time on the west coast.
Big sporting events-- football, baseball, basketball or hockey -- are usually scheduled to start 8:30-9pm eastern time and will run to 11:30-12:30am. On the west coast that start is 5:30-6pm and the event will run to 8:30 to 9:30pm.
The timing is actually both too late for the east coast and too early for the west coast -- but a compromise has to be struck. The timing works out best for the central and mountain time zones.
So Romney last week started to speak at about 10:40pm eastern time and ended well after eleven. The ratings were bad. Most Florida retirees with early bed times and Ohio workers who needed to get to work the next day watched little of the speech and less of the balloon party and giddy TV commentators talking about how well the speech went and how beautiful the candidates' family looked on stage.
The DNC should be smarter.
It's no flash news that it's only the elections in the swing states that matter. The only western time zone swing state is Nevada (6 votes). The only mountain time zone swing state is Colorado (9). The only central time zone swing states are Iowa (6) and Wisconsin (10).
The vast majority of swing states are in the eastern time zone: Michigan (16), Ohio (18), New Hampshire (4), Virginia (13), North Carolina (15) and Florida (29).
The totals: Western 7; Mountain 9; Central 16 and Eastern 95. Of course what is a swing state can change but these choices are based on the RCP current map. Swing States
DNC: Don't follow viewership models that ignore the swing state math and make the same mistake the RNC did. Don't make the people of Florida and Ohio turn off their TV while Obama is being introduced. Get the party started early and let the viewers on the east coast time to enjoy the speech and the after-party.