Stewart Drew Larger Crowd Than Beck
The New York Times reports:
How many people turned out in person for the rally? The Parks Service, which maintains the National Mall, does not release crowd estimates. But Judy McGrath, chief executive of Viacom’s MTV Networks unit, said she had been told by the Parks Service that there were “well over 200,000 people” there.
That estimate was affirmed by Air Photos Live, a company that was commissioned to measure the attendance by CBS News. Air Photos Live said it estimated that 215,000 people turned out on the mall. The aerial survey “has a margin of error of plus or minus 10 percent,” CBS said.
CBS commissioned an aerial survey for Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally in Washington in August, as well, and Air Photos Live estimated that 87,000 people turned out on that day. No outlet televised Mr. Beck’s rally live in its entirety, so TV ratings are not available.
The notion that Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert drew more people than Mr. Beck was bolstered by ridership numbers from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which oversees the Metrorail system. The Metro was overwhelmed in many spots by rallygoers on Saturday, causing long and frustrating delays at some stations.
The transit authority said, “Metro set a new record for highest Saturday Metrorail ridership” on the day of the rally, with an estimated 825,437 trips. “Average Saturday Metrorail ridership is typically about 350,000,” it said in a news release.
