52.7 Million Watched President Bush’s Economic Crisis Address

52.7 million viewers tuned in for President Bush’s speech on the U.S. economic crisis, which aired live Wednesday night from approximately 9:00pm to 9:15pm EST on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC.

	Rating	Average Audience Number
All Households	33.2	38,031,000
Persons 2+	18.2	52,653,000
Source: The Nielsen Company (September 24, 2008)
Note: Sum of audience estimates for ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, FOX News Channel, and MSNBC.

As a comparison, TV ratings for selected major news events throughout the past two decades are included below.

Event	Number of Networks	Date	Average Combined Household Rating	Average Number of Viewers (P2+)
President Ford’s Funeral	8	1/2/2007	11.3	15,028,000
Michael Jackson Trial Verdict	11 – English Language	6/13/2005	21.1	28,115,000
Michael Jackson Trial Verdict	2 – Spanish Language	6/13/2005	14.7	2,470,000
State of the Union	7	1/19/1999	31	43,500,000
Clinton’s Grand Jury Testimony	6	9/21/1998	18.8	22,500,000
Clinton’s Apology Address to Country	8	8/17/1998	46.9	67,600,000
Princess Diana’s Funeral–Sat 6-8am	8	9/6/1997	26.6	33,252,000
OJ Simpson Verdict	10	10/5/1995	42.9	53,925,000
State of Union-Clinton	5	1/25/1994	32.9	45,800,000
Clinton Address re: Health Care	4	9/22/1993	32.8	47,700,000
Joint Session of Congress by Clinton	4	2/17/1993	44.3	66,900,000
Clinton Address on the Economy	4	2/15/1993	42.1	64,300,000
Bush News Conference re: LA Riots	5	5/1/1991	37.1	54,600,000
Gulf War Day One	4	1/16/1991	54.3	85,600,000
Source: The Nielsen Company (2007)