Over 30 million viewers watched Donald Trump's inauguration
- by Emilio Sims
- in Money
- — Jan 24, 2017
The TV audience for President Donald Trump's inauguration fell from that of Barack Obama eight years ago, according to preliminary ratings data cited by the Hollywood Reporter. Trump's ratings were the second-highest in 36 years, dating back to the inauguration for President Ronald Reagan, which drew almost 42 million viewers.
The ratings are not directly comparable, because there were more networks available for viewing live coverage in recent years, but also more competition from alternative electronic media outlets, especially the Internet. Cable rivals CNN had 2.46 million and MSNBC had 1.35 million. A president's first inauguration typically draws more viewers, since the event is welcoming a new president.
During the oath of office and inaugural address between noon and 12:30 Eastern, the Fox News audience peaked at 11.76 million viewers.
Without giving particular numbers, Spicer said it "was the biggest group of onlookers to ever witness an introduction, period, both face to face and around the globe".
When compared though to Obama's 2013 inauguration, Trump did have a larger viewership.
"Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election!"
Nixon, a Republican, was the only two-term president since Nielsen began compiling such records to draw a bigger audience in his second inauguration than his first, rising from 27 million in 1969 to almost 33 million in 1973. "Celebs hurt cause badly". That's no surprise - Trump has been a frequent guest on the right-leaning network. While on broadcast, NBC was first with 5.8 million viewers for the day. ABC had 4.9 million watchers and CBS had 4.6 million.
