What's the difference between Paul Ryan and Sarah Palin? 15.3 million viewers. And lipstick.
According to Nielsen, (via The Wall Street Journal with a hat tip to Andrew Kaczynski), about 21.9 million people tuned in to "nine broadcast and cable networks" to watch the second night of the Republican convention, when Paul Ryan gave his lie-filled speech. Compare that with the 37.2 million that watched Palin's fiery turn on the big stage in 2008. (It's important to note that fewer networks were included in the 2008 numbers.)
So how many of those people not tuning in were actually watching Palin's fellow reality TV stars on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo? Some, probably, but BuzzFeed Shift's Amy Odell says there really was no competition between the TLC show and the convention.
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Esther Zuckerman
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