Who watched the conventions?

Nielsen (PDF; summary here) has done a detailed analysis of who watched the DNC, the RNC, and both. The key findings:

Nearly two thirds of all U.S. households (64.5% or 73.2 million homes) tuned into at least one of the 2008 political conventions (Graph 1). This equates to 120.1 million people ages 2+ watching a convention. Viewership levels for the two conventions were essentially tied, with about half of all households watching each one.

15.0% of all households tuned to just the RNC, and 15.7% tuned to just the DNC. Another 33.9% of all households tuned to both conventions.

Homes that watched both conventions were more likely to be headed by someone 65 years or older. They also completed the most formal education: nearly one-third (32.3%) graduated from college. Those watching only one convention were fairly comparable on both education and HOH age, within a point or two.

Homes that only tuned to the RNC were more likely to have higher incomes ($ 100K+), to have a larger household size (4+), to be white, to own a DVR, and to have a head of household with higher education (4+ yrs college) and aged 35-54.

Homes that only tuned in to the DNC were more likely to have a lower income (<20K), to have a smaller household size (2), to be African American, and to have a head of household who is younger (<35) and who has less education (1-3 Yrs College).</p>

About one-fifth (21.2%) of the DNC-only homes were headed by an African American. 83.5% of the RNC-only homes were headed by someone who is white.

Over 70% of African American homes tuned to at least one of the conventions, including 35.7% that tuned into both, more than each of the other ethnic breaks. Meanwhile 27.4% tuned in only to the DNC and 8.1% tuned in only to the RNC.

White homes had the second highest reach to both conventions (34.5%), and were the only ethnic break to have a higher percentage of partisan tuning to the RNC (16.2%) than the DNC (13.6%).

The big takeaway is just how many people watched at least part of one or both conventions. It's a pretty powerful rebuke to the notion that Americans don't care what's going on.

In the specifics, there's not a whole lot that's surprising, unless you (like Tucker Carlson) are ignorant enough to think people making over $100,000 are mostly Democrats.

But a few other points to highlight: Although the nominee speeches at the RNC drew higher ratings than the nominee speeches at the DNC, slightly more people watched just the DNC than just the RNC.

As you'd expect given their overwhelmingly Democratic voting patterns and the fact that the Democratic nominee is the first-ever black major-party nominee, a high percentage of African Americans watched only the DNC. But African Americans also watched at least one convention and both conventions at higher rates than any other racial group. Their high viewership of both conventions suggests interest in the race more broad than the common accusation of voting simply on race (as if race is simple).

Whites, meanwhile, were the only group to skew Republican, with the DNC enjoying a nearly 6 point edge among Hispanics (reinforcing kos' assault on the zombie lies that Latinos particularly like McCain or won't vote for a black candidate).