As the debate on health care in the U.S. continues, President Obama detailed his vision for health insurance reform in his second address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday September 9, 2009. The address was carried live from 8:00PM to approximately 9:06PM on 10 television networks. The sum of average audience for those networks was 32,111,596 viewers. The networks carrying the press conference were ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision, Telemundo, BET, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC.
Viewership to last night’s address was down 38.6% from President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress on February 24, which aired from approximately 9:00PM to 10:30PM.
| President Obama Addressing Joint Session of Congress | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Networks | Households | Viewers (P2+) |
| September 9, 2009 | ABC, CBS, NBC, Univision*, Telemundo*, BET*, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC |
23,607,629 | 32,111,596 |
| February 24, 2009 | ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel and MSNBC |
37,185,000 | 52,373,000 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company *Aired address on Tape Delay. All data are based on LiveSD stream. |
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In July, President Obama held a press conference focused on health care that drew nearly 25 million viewers.
