Overnights
Early numbers: Obama draws 33.6M
By Toni Fitzgerald
Feb 25, 2009 - 11:48:45 AM

President Barack Obama’s first Congressional address drew a substantial audience on broadcast last night, more than tuned in for President George W. Bush’s final State of the Union address around this time last year.

Across the Big Four networks, Obama’s speech averaged 33.6 million total viewers from 9 to 10 p.m., according to Nielsen overnights.

These numbers could change substantially when final ratings are issued later today, as fast nationals measure timeslot and not actual program data, and they are not time-zone adjusted.

Still, compared to overnights for the same hour last year during Bush’s speech, Obama drew 37 percent more viewers than Bush’s 24.6 million.

CBS, buoyed by the nearly 18 million who watched lead-in “NCIS” at 8 p.m., led all networks with 10.5 million viewers for the speech. NBC was second at 10.2 million, followed by ABC at 8.4 million and Fox at 4.6 million.

Millions more tuned in last night to coverage on the cable networks, Spanish-language networks and PBS. Final numbers for the speech including those other channels will be out later today.

As a reminder, all ratings are based on live-plus-same-day DVR playback. Seven-day DVR data won’t be available for several weeks. Twenty-eight percent of Nielsen households have DVRs.
 
NBC was first for the night with a 3.0 average overnight rating and an 8 share. CBS was second at 2.5/7, ABC third at 2.1/6, Fox fourth at 1.7/5, Univision fifth at 1.4/4 and CW sixth at 0.7/2.
 
At 8 p.m. CBS led with a 3.7 for “NCIS,” followed by NBC with a 3.5 for “The Biggest Loser.” ABC was third with a 1.9 for “Homeland Security,” Fox fourth with a 1.7 for a repeat of “Bones,” Univision fifth with a 1.6 for “Mañana Es para Siempre” and CW sixth with a 0.6 for a repeat of “90210.”
 
At 9 p.m. NBC was first with a 3.3 rating, with ABC second at 2.4, CBS third at 2.3, Fox fourth at 1.8 and Univision fifth at 1.4, all for Obama. CW was sixth with a 0.8 for “Privileged.”
 
NBC was first again at 10 p.m. with a 2.3 for the end of Obama and a repeat of “The Office,” while ABC remained second for Obama and “Primetime.” CBS was third with a 1.6 for Obama and a “Two and a Half Men” rerun and Univision fourth with a 1.1 for Obama and “Aqui y Ahora.”
 
Among households, CBS led the night with a 7.4 average overnight rating and a 12 share. NBC was second at 5.6/9, ABC third at 4.6/7, Fox fourth at 3.0/5, Univision fifth at 1.8/3 and CW sixth at 1.0/2.