Palin draws in viewers

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin can give a good speech, and the Republican vice presidential nominee can also draw an audience.

Nielsen Co. reported this afternoon that an estimated 37 million people watched her address on the three broadcast networks, plus CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC. That's just 1.1 million shy of the record audience for Barack Obama's acceptance speech last week, which was carried on four other cable networks as well, Nielsen said.

And her audience compares to 24 million who tuned in last Wednesday when Senator Joe Biden accepted the Democratic vice presidential nod, and 21 million who watched the GOP convention on Tuesday night.

Nielsen also noted that 19.5 million women watched Wednesday night, 4.9 million more than a week ago for the Democratic convention.

PBS, meanwhile, reported that 3.2 million viewers watched its coverage Wednesday night -- the second highest viewership during either convention behind only Obama's acceptance speech, which drew 3.5 million on that network. Its number for Wednesday night was far higher than the 1.9 million on Tuesday night.

That makes Palin's total at least 40 million. Obama's acceptance address drew more than 40 million viewers total.