If viewers were votes, John McCain would be celebrating a slim victory right now.

The senator drew a record 38.9 million total viewers for his speech Thursday accepting the Republican presidential nomination, edging Democratic rival Barack Obama’s record tally from the week before by 500,000.

The Republican National Convention, coverage of which was shortened from four to three days due to Hurricane Gustav, also outdrew the Democratic National Convention, averaging 34.5 million viewers to the DNC’s average 30.2 million over four days.

RNC coverage aired on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Telemundo and Univision on Thursday.

McCain’s speech was the most-watched for a Republican presidential nominee since at least 1996, when Nielsen began keeping records for each night of the conventions.

It easily outdrew the 27.6 million who tuned in for President Bush’s acceptance speech in 2004, though it’s also important to note that this was the first convention that included live plus same-day-DVR-playback viewership.

Still, the 2008 RNC paced more than 50 percent ahead of the 2004 edition, which averaged 22.6 million viewers, and much of that was due to vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s speech.

She drew 37.2 million viewers last Wednesday for her speech, her first-ever appearance on the national stage. That was more than double the 18.7 million who tuned in during the equivalent night in 2004.

McCain, meanwhile, drew 15.2 million adults 18-49, about 800,000 fewer than Obama in the demographic. He also drew less than half the number of black viewers, 3 million to Obama’s 7.5 million.

Both conventions were up significantly versus 2008 among total viewers, signaling the huge amount of interest there’s been in this year’s presidential election.

The cable networks, in particular, have set records for coverage this year, drawing big audiences during the primary season, when Obama and Hillary Clinton staged a long battle over the Democratic nomination.

Fox News drew the biggest audience for McCain’s speech, averaging 9.2 million total viewers. It marked the second week that a cable network has led viewership of the big speech, with CNN posting the biggest crowd for Obama’s speech.

But Obama was still a draw on Thursday. He made his first-ever appearance on FNC’s “The O’Reilly Factor” earlier that night and goosed the program to its second-best audience ever, 6.2 million viewers.

NBC, which aired a high-rated football game before the McCain speech, was second on the night and first among the broadcasters with 8.7 million viewers.