Thursday, January 25, 2007
Bush Speech Outdraws American Idol
President Bush's call for bipartisan support on a range of domestic issues while sticking to his guns on Iraq played well in the TV ratings, at least compared with his last two State of the Union speeches.
The live, hourlong broadcast of Bush's address Tuesday night to a joint session of the newly Democratic-controlled Congress averaged nearly 45.5 million U.S. viewers, Nielsen Media Research reported Wednesday.
That was up considerably from the 41.7 million who watched last year's State of the Union, in which Bush defended warrantless U.S. wiretaps of domestic phone calls and urged new energy initiatives, warning that America had become "addicted to oil."
Even fewer, 38.4 million viewers, tuned in to his 2005 speech - the least watched of his State of the Union addresses - which dwelt at length on Bush's proposals to revamp Social Security.
Bush tallied his biggest State of the Union audience, 62 million viewers, with a speech he gave in January 2003 as the nation geared up for war in Iraq.
On Tuesday night, Bush defended his unpopular decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq while urging bipartisan action on such issues as energy, health care and immigration.
The Nielsen tally for his latest speech included viewers on the four major broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox - as well as the three leading cable news outlets and Spanish-language broadcasters Telemundo and Univision.
By comparison, the most watched broadcast in terms of regularly scheduled commercial programming on U.S. television Tuesday was the Fox network's hit talent show "American Idol," which drew more than 31 million viewers.
President Bush's call for bipartisan support on a range of domestic issues while sticking to his guns on Iraq played well in the TV ratings, at least compared with his last two State of the Union speeches.
The live, hourlong broadcast of Bush's address Tuesday night to a joint session of the newly Democratic-controlled Congress averaged nearly 45.5 million U.S. viewers, Nielsen Media Research reported Wednesday.
That was up considerably from the 41.7 million who watched last year's State of the Union, in which Bush defended warrantless U.S. wiretaps of domestic phone calls and urged new energy initiatives, warning that America had become "addicted to oil."
Even fewer, 38.4 million viewers, tuned in to his 2005 speech - the least watched of his State of the Union addresses - which dwelt at length on Bush's proposals to revamp Social Security.
Bush tallied his biggest State of the Union audience, 62 million viewers, with a speech he gave in January 2003 as the nation geared up for war in Iraq.
On Tuesday night, Bush defended his unpopular decision to send more U.S. troops to Iraq while urging bipartisan action on such issues as energy, health care and immigration.
The Nielsen tally for his latest speech included viewers on the four major broadcast networks - ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox - as well as the three leading cable news outlets and Spanish-language broadcasters Telemundo and Univision.
By comparison, the most watched broadcast in terms of regularly scheduled commercial programming on U.S. television Tuesday was the Fox network's hit talent show "American Idol," which drew more than 31 million viewers.
