Interesting. With all the hype I expected him to blow everyone out of the water.
Reagan Beats Obama in Inaugural Ratings, Nielsen Says Friday, January 23, 2009 11:00 AM
By: Rick Pedraza
Although the number of viewers watching the presidential inauguration coverage of Barack Obama was impressive, they fall short of those who saw Ronald Reagan take the oath of office for his first term in 1981.
According to Nielsen Media Research, 37.8 million television viewers tuned in Tuesday to watch the swearing-in ceremony, which was the largest inaugural audience in 28 years. Reagan's first inauguration in 1981 drew a whopping 41.8 million.
Obama's viewership was, however, 27 percent higher than Bill Clinton's in 1993, and 30 percent higher than George W. Bush's in 2001. Bushs swearing-in for his second term in 2005 was the lowest viewing audience (15.5 million) for a presidential inauguration.
Obama's figures include telecasts on 17 broadcast and cable networks, while Reagans swearing-in ceremony nearly three decades ago could only be seen on ABC, CBS and NBC.
NBCs coverage of the Obama inauguration festivities beat all competitors with 11.5 million viewers, followed by ABC (11 million) and CBS (7.2 million). CNN topped the cable networks with 8.5 million viewers, followed by Fox News Channel (5.5 million), and MSNBC (3.1 million).
The ratings do not, however, include the huge online viewing audience, with CNN.com, FoxNews.com and MSNBC.com all reporting record-breaking streaming video traffic. Google reports that searches were down during the event.
Among U.S. cities, Raleigh-Durham had the largest TV audience (51 percent of the television audience), while host city Washington, D.C. came in second (48 percent). Seattle-Tacoma had the lowest television rating at 18.8 percent, and the West Coast, in general, had the lowest numbers, possibly due to the fact that the swearing-in ceremony there was televised at 9 a.m.
Overseas numbers show Germany with 11 million viewers, followed by France (7 million) and Great Britain (5.1 million).
Presidential Inauguration Ratings (from highest to lowest):
1981 Ronald Reagan 41.8 million
1977 Jimmy Carter 34.1 million
1973 Richard Nixon 33.0 million
1993 Bill Clinton 29.7 million
2001 George W. Bush 29.0 million
1985 Ronald Reagan 25.1 million
1989 George Bush 23.3 million
1997 Bill Clinton 21.6 million
2005 George W. Bush 15.5 million
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/obama_inaugural_reagan/2009/01/23/174132.html