Will Obama break 1981 Reagan record for inauguration Nielsen ratings? No.

[Geezah]

Final Update: The Obama inauguration was watched by 37.8 million, second only to Reagan’s 41.8 million in 1981.

Another update: still haven’t seen the viewer numbers but James Hibberd reminded me that a household ratings point is larger today than it was in 1981, so Reagan’s record might not be safe after all. We’ll see!

Update: Reagan looks safe, but Obama appears headed for second most-watched inauguration.

Ronald Reagan’s inauguration twenty-eight years ago on January 20, 1981 set the inaugural ratings record, averaging almost forty-two million (41,800,260). Will Barack Obama break the record?

I was in the nearby Safeway about five minutes after the inauguration ended and it was a barren ghost town. But that’s a bit anecdotal for my tastes.

We won’t likely know the results until tomorrow, but in the meanwhile here’s some real data for today, though it is based on Internet rather than television. According to the Silicon Alley Insider based on data from Akamai the early numbers for the inauguration among news web sites was that they saw 5.4 million visitors per minute.

Peak total visitors per minute were 5.4 million, making it one of the top five events ever, trailing both the 2008 presidential election (#1 with 8.572 million visitors per minute at peak traffic) as well as the first day of the NCAA college basketball tournament last March (#3 with 7.01 million visitors/minute ).

We’ll have to see if Obama can dethrone Reagan as the inaugural Nielsen ratings champ, but in the meanwhile you can see the inauguration numbers back to 1969 via the Nielsen Wire.
Link (http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/01/20/will-obama-break-1981-ronald-reagan-record-for-inauguration-nielsen-ratings/11134)

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[KoTeMoRe]

Link (http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/01/20/will-obama-break-1981-ronald-reagan-record-for-inauguration-nielsen-ratings/11134)

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Reagan in 1992? What?

[SBL]

Reagan in 1992? What?
Typo. Duh.

[delio]

How many people watched it on the interweb instead? I know I did.

[Hellfish]

I'd be curious to know how many people watched it online, like me, vice watching it on TV. Or how many people watched it in public places (a lot of bars opened early here in Seattle for people to come and watch it).

[delio]

I'm glad you mention Seattle. On Nielsen's list of mayor TV markets by rating for the inauguration it is listed at the lowest. This at first seemed illogical to me -- since it is one of the most liberal city in the country, but than I did a double take: Microsoft, interweb; Starbucks, cafés ...Obama loving Yuppies, Dinks and the like just used other alternatives.

San Francisco and Portland, Oregon rounding out the three worst rated major TV markets adds irrefutable credence to my take on it.

[Dragonscript]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Ratings#Measuring_ratings

It also doesn't include radio. Also, like any survey it has its drawbacks.

[Stainless Steel Rat]

At work Tuesday they had closed-circuit TV in the auditorium and at least three people in the immediate vicinity had it on their monitors at thier work-stations.

The TV ratings may be slightly lower, but the www. did not have the impact in 1980 that it has today (Al Gore must have taken a break or something...).

[delio]

One other thing that comes to mind is the fetish the most ardent Obama supporters have with block parties ..house parties, or what ever they call it. That likely affected the rating towards a bias of under-counting the number of people that actually watched it on TV.

[Hellfish]

One other thing that comes to mind is the fetish the most ardent Obama supporters have with block parties ..house parties, or what ever they call it.

Yeah, because community is so passe.

[Geezah]

How many people watched it on the interweb instead? I know I did.

I know my household didn't.

[delio]

Yeah, because community is so passe.

Let me clarify, I didn't intend it in a negative way. In fact, I think they are a positive thing, both for participative democracy and in general.

[Hellfish]

Let me clarify, I didn't intend it in a negative way. In fact, I think they are a positive thing, both for participative democracy and in general.

Gotcha. I'm used to dealing with snarky people around here... I interpret things snarkily.

[akd]

US population 1981: 229,465,714 (18% of the population watched on television)
US population 2008: 303,824,640 (12% of the population watched on television)

I love these apples to oranges "most ever," "biggest ever" and "new record" stories.

[melbeach]

Don't forget the 2 million plus folks who went to DC.. estimated 1.9 million on the mall alone.

[Geezah]

Don't forget the 2 million plus folks who went to DC.. estimated 1.9 million on the mall alone.

We'll see, the numbers aren't official yet.

[Hellfish]

We'll see, the numbers are official yet.

Does it really matter? You're acting like this is a **** measuring contest.

[Geezah]

Does it really matter? You're acting like this is a **** measuring contest.

Yes it does, to me anyways, the way some people are here and elsewhere, they really are treating this like the second coming, as though he will pay my mortgage and put gas in my car!

[Hellfish]

Yes it does, to me anyways, the way some people are here and elsewhere, they really are treating this like the second coming, as though he will pay my mortgage and put gas in my car!

You're acting like a whiny bitch. Seriously. All these threads you're starting. "Well... well... HE DIDN'T GET THE HIGHEST RATINGS!!!!!!!"

Who the **** cares? Chill out. Drink a beer and go shoot some ammo downrange.

Jesus.

I would never even known that his TV ratings were an issue until you brought them up. And what is more, how many people on this forum are calling him the second coming? Nobody, as far as I can tell. So who the **** are you complaining to? Go to the moveon.org forum and tell them there.

[el borracho]

Does it really matter? You're acting like this is a **** measuring contest.

Obama would probably win that too...just sayin'. p-)

[delio]

Per USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2009-01-21-inauguration-ratings_N.htm): CNN.com said 26.9 million watched live streams of the inauguration; MSNBC.com claimed 9.1 million.

TV: the new Internet Explorer ..it seems to have lost a lot of 'market' share to the interwebs.



Internet audience shatters records (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ad762fd2-e826-11dd-b2a5-0000779fd2ac.html)

By Andrew EdgecliffeJohnson in New York
Published: January 22 2009 02:00 | Last updated: January 22 2009 02:00

Barack Obama's inauguration failed to attract the unprecedented television audience many predicted, as record numbers of people chose instead to follow the event online, marking the latest new media milestone for a president whose path to power was smoothed by his widely praised use of the internet.

Almost 37.8m Americans watched television broadcasts of the new president's swearing-in, according to figures released by Nielsen, the media ratings group.

While this stemmed the trend of declining ratings for presidential inaugurations, exceeding the 15.5m people who watched George W. Bush's second inauguration in 2005, it fell far short of the record audience for Ronald Reagan's first inauguration, which drew 41.8m viewers to the three largest news networks in 1981.

CNN's website on Tuesday exceeded its live-streaming record, set on the day of Mr Obama's election, by four times.

CNN.com received 136m page views and CNN.com Live served more than 21.3m live video streams, against 5.3m on November 4.

With many traditional media outlets and internet sites such as YouTube offering live streaming, Google said the internet audience was sufficiently captivated by Mr Obama to register a noticeable fall in overall search volumes during his speech.

[I can't think of a name]

The Crowd estimates keep falling. The National Park Service will come out with an Estimate soon.

The NPS used to do it all the time, however after Louis Farrahkhan's "Million Man March" the NPS pointed out there was no where near a million men. Political pressure stopped the NPS from making estimates for events on the mall after that. A Young Barack Obama marched in that Million Man March in 96 I believe. Don't know why the NPS will start doing it again.

[California Joe]

Seriously, who gives a f*ck. He got far better TV ratings than the four guys on Mt. Rushmore combined. Combined!