Apparently people are not interested in watching folks in North Carolina wearing funny hats.According to Neilsen's television ratings, the ABC and CBS got hammered Wednesday evening --

">both in total number of  viewers before and after coverage of the Democratic National Convention ended.

The numbers are telling:

  • NBC NFL Football's Cowboys vs. Giants game: about 21 million viewers
  • FOX's So You Think You Can Dance: about 4.14 million viewers
  • ABC's The Middle: about 4.55 million viewers
  • CBS's DNC coverage at 10 p.m. Eastern: 3.94 million viewers

These shows aired between 8-10 p.m. Eastern Time (5-7 p.m.  Pacific Time). Comparatively, the DNC coverage on CBS and ABC that followed did not gather more than 3.94 million viewers. Also noteworthy, the big three Late Night shows that followed most markets' local news at 11 brought in between 4 million viewers (Jimmy Kimmel) to as many as 9 million (Jay Leno). That would indicate people tuned in to see dancing, sit-coms and football, then tuned out during the convention, then came back for some late night shows.

It is worth noting though, the NFL season opener was down about 15 percent from the similar event last season. Still, 21 million viewers on a Wednesday for football is strong.

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