Television
Final numbers: 48 million watch Obama
By Toni Fitzgerald
Jan 29, 2010 - 8:02:41 AM

More than President Bill Clinton but less than President George W. Bush.

That's the verdict on viewership for President Barack Obama's first State of the Union speech, which drew 48.01 million total viewers on Wednesday night, according to Nielsen data.

Of course Obama had the advantage of airing on 11 networks, more than double the four who carried Clinton's first SOTU back in 1994. That speech averaged 45.8 million viewers.

Bush's first SOTU, delivered in 2002, drew 51.8 million viewers, airing just months after the 9/11 attacks.

Obama's speech, which aired from 9 p.m. to 10:20 p.m., likely got a big tune-in from people hoping to hear him outline plans to create more jobs and reform healthcare, the latter a particularly controversial and partisan issue.

It was not the president's most-watched speech, however, or even his second-most-watched. Those honors go to two speeches delivered in a three-week span last February, which drew 49.5 million and 52.37 million viewers, respectively.

The Obama SOTU aired on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, BET, CNBC, Fox News Channel and MSNBC.



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