Some 20.6 million people tuned in to watch President Obama’s second inauguration on television on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. While coverage varied by network, 18 networks aired live coverage from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET, says a NielsenWire blog post. The first table highlights the sum of the average audience for these networks.
While viewership was down 17.2 million people—or 46 percent—for Obama’s second inauguration, it did hold pace with the drop-off that George W. Bush’s second term inauguration experienced. In fact, viewership has historically slid for second term inaugurations. Pres. Richard Nixon is the only president in recent history that has seen an increase; he notched a 22 percent increase during his second term inauguration.
Entire Inaugural 10a.m. – 4:30p.m. (ET) | Rating | Number of Homes/Viewers | ||
Households | 14 | 16,020,000 | ||
Persons 2+ | 7.1 | 20,552,000 | ||
Date (January 20) | President | HH Rating (% of U.S. TV Households Tuned) | Number of Households | Number Persons+2 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Source: Nielsen |
2013 Networks Included: The 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. viewing numbers includes programming provided by ABC, CBS, NBC, UNIVISION, TELEMUNDO, AZTECA, MundoFox, PBS, Fox News Channel, CNN Headline News, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, TV One, CNN, Current TV, CNBC, CENTRIC and BET.
As to the specific viewing, the NAB points out that almost twice as many Americans tuned into broadcast television networks than cable news networks for coverage of the inauguration on, according to Nielsen data. An average of 5.1 million viewers watched NBC’s telecast of the inauguration from 10 a.m.-4:35 p.m., 3.9 million viewers tuned into ABC during the ceremony, and CBS’s broadcast drew 3.7 million viewers. Meanwhile, during President Obama’s oath of office and inaugural address, an average of 3.1 million viewers were tuned into CNN, 2.3 million viewers were watching MSNBC, and Fox News attracted 1.3 million viewers.
2009 Networks Included: The 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. viewing numbers includes programming provided by ABC, CBS, NBC, UNIVISION, BBCA, BET, CNN, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, and TVONE. Contributing to these viewing numbers are TELEMUNDO, CNBC, ESPN, CNN HEADLINE, MTV, MTV2, MTVTR3S who aired programming approximately between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. ET.
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