The President’s first prime time press conference was watched by 49.5 million people on eight networks on February 9, 2009.

In the week before the press conference President Obama visited The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Thursday March 19. The program was seen in 8.9 million homes in the 56 metered markets that represent 70% of all U.S. TV households and earned an average 11.2 rating and 26 share in those local markets. On Sunday March 22 more than 17 million people watched 60 Minutes featuring an extended interview with the President, making the show the 4th most watched show of the week behind American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.

In the two months since taking office President Obama has communicated directly to the American people and the world via television on multiple occasions. Here is a summary of some of the most visible TV appearances.

Hybrid Ads include customized ads, branded promos, vignettes, interstitials, and micro-series where sponsor messaging is combined with program or entertainment content.

Recall refers to the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, a hybrid ad’s sponsor.

A hybrid ad’s “recall score” is the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, the sponsor of a hybrid ad they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing primetime TV on broadcast and major cable networks.

Recall scores are indexed against the mean score for all new hybrid ads during the time period to calculate an ad’s “recall index.”

A recall index of 100 indicates average recall.  A recall index of 279, for example, means that a hybrid ad has proven to be about 2.8 times as memorable as the average new hybrid ad during the four-week time period.