NEW YORK: TV coverage of Obama’s Sunday evening announcement that U.S. military forces killed Osama bin Laden yielded a 33.9 household rating, according to Nielsen. The address, carried live from around 11:35 to 11:44 p.m. Eastern, was carried on nine networks. The sum of the average audience across the networks was 56,512,179 viewers. ABC, NBC, CBS, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, Fox News Channel, Headline News and MSNBC carried the address.
By comparison, Obama’s first press conference as president, in February of 2009, generated a 30.8 household rating with more than 49 million viewers. His March 28. 2011 address on Libya yielded a 16.9 with 25.6 million viewers on eight networks. An Aug. 31, 2010 address on Iraq carried by 11 networks brought in an 18.8 households rating and 29.2 million viewers. The president’s Dec. 1, 2009 speech on Afghanistan posted a 25.9 rating with 40.8 million viewers.
