EON

Washington  – According to data from Nielsen Media research, nearly 40 million people tuned in to watch the last night of the Democratic National Convention which culminated with a speech by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Nearly 40 million viewers tuned in to watch the big Obama speech on Thursday night, more than the audience for the opening night of the Beijing Olympics, and the finale of American Idol.

Barack Obama spoke in front of 80,000 people in Denver, Colorado.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton managed to draw 26 million viewers on Tuesday night.

The ratings for the 2008 Democratic National Convention have been nearly five times higher than the 2004 convention..

CNN and NBC led the way in terms of networks.

The largest for broadcast networks was NBC with 6.27 million viewers.