January 21, 2009 40 Comments
Nearly 37.8 million Americans watching at home viewed President Barack Obama’s oath of office and inaugural speech between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. ET on January 20, 2009. This is the most viewed inauguration since the record of 41.8 million viewers who watched Ronald Reagan’s 1981 inauguration.
This is the first inaugural since Nielsen began tracking time-shifted viewing, and this year’s data is based on Live + Same Day, meaning incremental viewing during the same broadcast day is included.
| President | Date | HH Rating | Households | Viewers P2+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barack Obama | January 20, 2009 -Tues | 25.5 | 28,906,061 | 37,793,008 |
| Ronald Reagan | January 20, 1981-Tue | 37.4 | 29,100,000 | 41,800,260 |
| Richard Nixon | January 20, 1969 – Mon | 33.5 | 18,870,000 | 27,007,700 |
| Jimmy Carter | January 20, 1977-Thu | 31.5 | 22,430,000 | 34,127,090 |
| Richard Nixon | January 20, 1973-Sat | 28.5 | 18,470,000 | 32,950,900 |
| Bill Clinton | January 20, 1993-Wed | 24.5 | 22,758,111 | 29,721,041 |
| Ronald Reagan | January 20, 1985-Sun | 22.3 | 18,925,556 | 25,053,886 |
| George W. Bush | January 20, 2001-Sat | 20.8 | 21,346,400 | 29,008,200 |
| George H.W. Bush | January 20, 1989-Fri | 20 | 18,106,000 | 23,316,325 |
| Bill Clinton | January 20, 1997-Mon | 17.1 | 16,515,000 | 21,583,000 |
| George W. Bush | January 20, 2005-Thu | 11.8 | 12,928,709 | 15,536,652 |
| © 2009 The Nielsen Company | ||||
RELATED: Nielsen Online traffic data for News, Current Event, and Video Streaming on Inauguration Day.
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It’s rather shocking that the number is that low considering the media hype and since the fact that there was a study showing that Mr. Obama’s media coverage was 35 times more than that of George Bush. Then again style doesn’t always triumph over substance.
Wouldn’t this be due to the fact that over 3 million of the individuals whom might have watched it on the tube were in fact watching it on the mall, having braved the blistering cold might I add. Now, riddle me this, were there over 2 million brave souls at either the first or second inaugurations of President Reagan? I think not.
Drudge should get out of portending to cite news. The Drudge Report officially become propaganda 6 months ago. If you include online viewing of the Inaugeration, which is regular at work nowadays, Obama’s is the most watched inaugeral address by far. That’s not including overseas viewership.
Some are reporting these numbers as “Reagan beats Obama” — but you have to add to these numbers those that were in attendance and those — like myself and most of my friends — who were at work and watching it all on the WWW. Then, for good measure, you could try to estimate the world-wide viewing audience. I think it’s pretty clear that this was the most watched inauguration of a U.S. president, ever.
Does this figure take into account on-line viewing or just television viewing?
Wow! This means that GWB was the Republican party’s Jimmy Carter! Seems pretty accurate.
Funny how you don’t see that on any major news station, periodical or magazine
[...] War on Terror (16) President Reagan 1981 Inaugural Address January 21, 2009, 9:19 PM Filed under: Uncategorized REAGAN BEATS OBAMA: 41,800,260 to 37,793,008… [...]
Interesting, but people were not watching the Reagan inauguration on the internet. Duh! Oh yeah, does Nielsen count international views?
I feel quite sure that if Internet is included, then many, many more people watched Obama than Reagan. So Matt Drudge will have to retract his link, Reagan did not “beat” Obama, that’s just ridiculous.
Combined with the overwhelming online viewership (plus the 2 million attending the event in person) the total universe of viewers had to break all the records
The mainstream media won’t stand for this! I demand a recount!!!
[...] based on Live + Same Day, meaning incremental viewing during the same broadcast day is included. Source And Obama received twice the media coverage Reagan did, imagine that. __________________ [...]
this statistic refers to people who watched it at home. i watched it at the office over the internet. my entire office watched it. our office was essentially closed for an hour. i suspect many others were also, as we received no calls during that hour.
These numbers do not reflect the millions of people like me who watched the inauguration via the internet – cnn.com live streaming in my case. That was an option not open to people when President Reagan was sworn in.
That’s just on TV. You’re forgetting web viewers, estimated at least at 10 million
Does this take into account the millions upon millions of people who kept up with the coverage by way of the web? I know I don’t even have TV so I watched it on the Washintonpost.com website. My take on this would be that Obama probably had a good 10 to 20 million more people watching.
Does this count people that watched on the internet? Were there theaters and restaurants and bars filled to the brim watching Reagan? I ask sincerely I really don’t remember I was 1 years old.
Does this figure take into account the numbers of people who watched online? I think with thos figures the number of viewers would increase dramatically.
[...] Posted by REDRUM Source And Obama received twice the media coverage Reagan did, imagine that. Reagan was the worst. [...]
No one could watch Reagan’s inauguration streaming over the Internet.
[...] with many Americans. It was the most watched inauguration since Reagan, but Reagan still got far more viewers. You’d think Obama could grab the idol worshippers in droves, being the Messiah and [...]
These are strictly the TV numbers.
It’s OK. So Reagan easily beat Obama in ratings. He also had better economic plans and was more charismatic. It will be OK.
No surprise that more at-home viewers watched the Reagan inauguration. Obama had a ready-made, in-person audience because of where it was held – and all the government employees, of course, had the day off.
[...] ON 1/22/2009 Nielsen reports that from 10am to 5pm ET, an average 37,793,008 tuned into the ceremony, swearing in, speech and [...]
It continues to astound me that people who will never be happy with this year’s election results go to any website or blog, even NielsenWire, to trash our new President in his second full day in office.
This is about TV ratings, people. And a note to you Reaganites (who apparently don’t remember Iran/contra or the beginning of all the deregulation of American business that started in the second Reagan admin that fostered our current financial crisis but I wouldn’t expect you to even understand what happened there was treasonous, “I’m talkin’ to you Ollie North”), you can’t compare ratings from 1980 and 2008. In that 28 years the broadcast landscape has changed dramatically and the audience numbers have changed.
But you people who talk politics on blogs that aren’t political just can’t hang with the reasoned assertions of political blog commenters, so you show up here.
Fine for you, but you’re playing in the wrong park and you’re just annoying people.
Hibberd has the same problem at his THR blog.
[...] See the inaugural address for yourself — in case you’re one of the three people that missed it. [...]
These numbers only appear to reflect that of TV viewers. Can I get a count of online viewers. I know a lot more people watched it online than at home. Most people have to work during the day.
Another way of looking at this using the Nielsen numbers:
12% of Americans watched Obama’s inauguration
18% of Americans watched Reagan’s inauguration
I monitor the corporate network for a large global company – very few people watched the inauguration over the Internet (probably due to low quality image). Estimates of Internet viewing in the US are in the thousands not millions. Some people at work (12% sounding about right) watched on TVs and projectors we set up. Having been around during Reagan’s inauguration I would guess that radio listenership at least equaled work/Internet/radio audience today.
[...] Nearly 37.8 Million Watch President Obama?s Oath And Speech On TVFor those saying "Reagan Beat Obama", uh, no. These are television only (and probably US only) numbers. Add in international, online, and, right, that huge crowd in Washington. Toss in the Times Square crowd. All righty then.
Nielsen Online released traffic numbers to News and Current Event web sites on Inauguration Day.
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/news-and-video-site-traffic-surges-on-inauguration-day/
[...] See also: Nearly 37.8 Million Watch President Obama’s Oath And Speech On TV [...]
[...] noted this week that Obama’s big day came in under the record most-watched inauguration, Ronald [...]
[...] noted this week that Obama’s big day came in under the record most-watched inauguration, Ronald [...]
Stuart Berman: did you look at Nielsen’s web traffic numbers? Could you really type that online US viewership was only “in the thousands” with a straight face? Mere thousands would be startling, in a country this size. Or are you looking at numbers you wished you saw, instead of the actual ones?
I live in a very Republican area, but, except for me – I was stuck in my driveway until I got the plow out to clear it – everyone told me they were with other people watching. Very few of them mentioned watching a television; if they were at work, they gathered with their coworkers to watch. And me? I gave up my car-moving efforts to plug the modem into my laptop and spent an hour watching the Inauguration live via the New York Times site (benefit: no commentators. I had NPR if I wanted that.).
This was historic for our nation and the world, beyond any partisanship; the Republicans I talked to were moved and impressed, and yeah, they all watched it.
I’m not sure what the point of people going on about the tv ratings is – those numbers are only part of how people watched.
A final point: hooray for international enthusiasm and goodwill toward the USA. It’s been a long, long time.
[...] grew 13% in Q1 2009, driven by both strong brand marketing and large media events including the Presidential inauguration, the Super Bowl and March Madness. With broadband levels increasing in the U.S., online video [...]
[...] Obama’s Inauguration took place online viewing actually exceeded regular TV viewing with Nielson reporting nearly 40 million viewers, whereas online viewing was estimated to be around 70 [...]
[...] Earlier this year, the inauguration of President Barack Obama was watched by 37.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen. [...]
[...] Nearly 37.8 Million Watch President Obama’s Oath And Speech On TV | Nielsen Wire Popular Incoming Search Queries [...]
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