With a 40.8 million average, last night's address was the most-watched since the health care address to a Joint Session of Congress in February. But keep in mind that it was also the shortest address he has given. Had last February's address only run a half hour, it might have had much larger numbers.
Data via Nielsen Wire:
| Tuesday December 1, 2009 | Combined Household Rating | Combined Household Share | Number of Households | Number of Persons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, Univision, Telemundo, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel and MSNBC | 25.9 | 44 | 29,806,000 | 40,767,134 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company | ||||
Here are ratings for President Obama’s previous prime time speeches and press conferences this year:
| Subject | Date | Number of Networks | Household Rating | Household Share | Number of Households | Number of Persons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Address to a Joint Session of Congress: Health Care Reform^ | 09/09/09 | 11 | 20.6 | 35 | 23,607,629 | 32,111,596 |
| Health Care Reform^^ | 07/22/09 | 11 | 16.3 | 32 | 18,674,361 | 24,682,519 |
| 100th Day in Office^^ | 04/29/09 | 10 | 18.8 | 27 | 21,408,000 | 28,811,000 |
| Economic Recovery^^ | 03/24/09 | 11 | 25.9 | 45 | 29,799,000 | 40,354,000 |
| Address to a Joint Session of Congress: Health Care Reform^ | 02/24/09 | 10 | 35.2 | 49 | 37,185,000 | 52,373,000 |
| Stimulus Plan^^ | 02/09/09 | 8 | 30.8 | 47 | 35,311,433 | 49,455,00 |
No one really watches Barack Obama (or listens to him speak) anymore. We’re just waiting for him to finish so we can watch whatever we actually tuned in for.
With the amount of options on cable (including OnDemand), along with people’s DVD libraries, I’m pretty sure people didn’t watch Obama unless they wanted to. I’m glad people watched, and I hope our President knows what he’s doing in Afghanistan. Watching McCain’s response shows clearly what a disaster he would have been on Foreign policy.
I fully expect him to shorten the next speech for even higher ratings. And then the next, the next, the next, until he pulls a ‘Greta Garbo’ on us.
When you add up all those channels even Leno could do 40 million! I didn’t watch a minute of his droning, but did watch some post-speech analysis on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC. Loved how Maddow was infuriated that her beloved Prez is acting just like Bush!!
I watched on CNN.com for eight minutes, so add 0.20 of a person.
Remember when not supporting your President meant sending our enemies the wrong message ergo weakening our country ergo putting our troops in foreign lands in even more harm’s way?
I’m not sure if President Obama’s shortening the length of his February speech would’ve have caused higher numbers or not but it sounds like sour grapes to me. Conjecture. Something we’ve no way of knowing. JMHO.
I’d say the content of this particular speech, the time of year, & the worsening economy played more of a role. AND before I’m accused of being this or that? I disagreed with President Obama contextually but will support him nonetheless as perhaps he has intel the average American citizen is not privy too.
Glad the ratings are up though. Makes for informed debate.
Wasn’t the February one the Non-State of the Union?
Agree or disagree, what the President said is 1000 times more important than the Tiger Woods incident and Whitehouse gate crashers. Good to see a significant audience for something important.
@CK
Amen..it was actually a relief to see some actual news getting reported, rather than the dribble the newsfolk enjoy choking on.
Unlike his “beating a dead horse” previous public speeches, this one actually had some news in it and was kept short. And there was a significant build-up by the news media wondering what was going to be said. Those three factors are probably what got this appearance better ratings.
But it was still the third most viewed of his speeches with the fourth most viewed merely a nose behind. That’s not good. He should pull back now until he has some news again. I think if he did another health care reform speech, his ratings would tank. That and Fox would probably not run it on its broadcast channel and probably another broadcast network would join Fox in not doing so.
Scott Jensen: The job of the president is not to worry about television ratings–perhaps you really need to put things into perspective.
ALL HAIL TOTUS Teleprompter of the United States.
This is one of the only addresses I actually watched — because I felt it was relevant and important. The others, especially recently, have just been repetitive and pointless and are summed up far better by the media in 2-3 minute recaps.
@gdb
Agreed that the president has information we are not privy too… I felt the same way about Bush and his war decisions.
Roland, maybe you should understand how politics works in America. A President’s popularity translates into political power. The more popular the President, the more of his agenda he can get done and passed. The less popular, the less that he can accomplish. Thus the ratings for his televised speeches are very important as they are an indicator of his popularity.
And right now, Obama’s popularity is at a new all-time low. There isn’t a single policy issue that he has more favorables than unfavorables. The only number that is still positive is his overall popularity but that is now at the 50% mark and many polls put it just under that. And that has MAJOR importance for him and his agenda. The more unpopular he becomes, the more Democrats will distance themselves from him and his policies. In fact, that’s already starting to happen as you need only see how many Congressional Democrats are reacting to his speech.
And this website is about TV ratings so my comments (unlike yours) are on-topic here.