Sarah Palin's speech seen by more than 40 Million on TV

Palin's speech drew 37.2 million viewers on either ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel, or MSNBC, according to Nielsen Media Research. An additional 3.9 billion viewers tuned in from PBS, according to the Associated Press.

Palin's results on six networks were about 1.3 million viewers less than those who tuned in to see the presidential nomination speech of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama last week. He drew 38.4 million viewers on the networks. Including PBS and and C-SPAN he drew more than 40 million, according to AP.

During the 37 minute speech Palin also introduced her family: her five children Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig along with her husband Todd to whom she has been married for over 20 years.

The results provided by Nielsen Media Research do not include the audience for the network C-SPAN, which also broadcasted the speech.

Her speech attracted more viewers than the Opening Ceremonies at the 2008 Beijing Olympics broadcasted by NBC and more than the American Idol Finale this year and the 2008 Academy Award telecast, according to Forbes.

Palin, who is also governor of Alaska, was nominated for vice president by Presidential Candidate John McCain last Friday. Soon thereafter internet searches for information about the candidate skyrocketed.

On Internet, the number of searches for "Sarah Palin" surpassed significantly those of "John McCain," "Barack Obama," or "Joe Biden" according to a Time article written by Bill Tancer, the general manager of research at Hitwise.

He said Internet searches made for Governor Palin were the largest in three years for any political personality. In the week ending Aug. 30, 2008, searches for Palin were almost four times as popular as Senator Obama searches, eight times as popular as Senator McCain searches and more than ten times popular than searches for her counterpart the Democrat Joe Biden.

Some of the popular issues that have caught readers attention since Palin's nomination are, the pregnancy of her 17-year old single daughter Bristol and that the governor was once in a beauty contest.