NEW YORK: President Obama’s Tuesday evening speech on troop deployments to Afghanistan netted nearly 40.8 million viewers across 10 networks, Nielsen said. ABC, NBC, Fox, CBS, Univision, Telemundo, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC and Fox New Channel carried the speech live at 8 p.m. EST. It generated a combined household rating across the networks of 25.9.
Obama’s seventh prime-time speech this year, the Afganistan address delivered 27 percent more viewers than the president’s Sept. 9 speech to a joint session of Congress. Around 32.1 million people watched that speech. A July 22 address on health care reform drew 24.7 million. A speech on the first 100 days of the Obama presidency, on April 29, drew 28.8 million. His March address on the economy brought in 40.4 million. The Feb. 24 health-care reform speech to Congress netted 52.4 million viewers, and the Stimulus Plan talk Feb. 9 drew 49.5 million.
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