37.2 million people watched Palin's speech 

Last week Barack Obama smashed all convention viewing records by drawing a television audience of 38.4 million for his acceptance speech. Well, Sarah Palin didn’t break that record but she came might close: 37.2 million tuned in last night for her speech. To put that in perspective, only 27.6 million watched Bush’s speech at the Republican convention in 2004.

To be sure, some of those viewers were probably hoping that Palin would fall flat on her face. But the vast majority of them were probably tuning in to see who this woman was and, judging by the general reaction, you have to expect that they pretty impressed by what they saw. The post-convention polls are going to be mighty interesting. 

PS Reihan asks a good question, how much over-lap was there between these two audiences?