Much more importantly, 53 million plus understood his speech. I'm guessing that Jindal's response wouldn't have gotten as many hits if it hadn't been for the train wreck factor.
More than 52 million people watched President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress in prime time on Tuesday, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The TV audience, pegged at 52.4 million by Nielsen, does not include out-of-home or online viewers. Nielsen said the address, which was broadcast roughly between 9 and 10:30 p.m., averaged a 49 share across 10 networks, which means that almost half of the people watching TV at the time were watching Mr. Obama’s speech.
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George W. Bush’s first address before Congress, in Feb. 2001, reached an average audience of 39.8 million viewers.
Online, a C-SPAN video of Mr. Obama’s address has been viewed more than 150,000 times on YouTube. The Republican response, delivered by Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, has been viewed more than 75,000 times.
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