Opinion: TV viewers for Obama’s news conference: A lot but not the most

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Numbers just in on the TV audience for President Obama’s first prime-time White House news conference Monday night:

Big, but not the biggest.

With a precision that comes from the knowledge that no one else is counting, Nielsen Wire reports that 49,455,133 people (for a 30.8 household rating) watched the new president on eight networks use a TelePrompTer to deliver more dire economic warnings and answer questions from a predetermined list of reporters for about 54 minutes. The Ticket published the full transcript here last night.

Shortly after his 1993 inauguration, President Clinton had a similar news conference on four networks that drew an audience of 64.3 million and a household rating of 42.1.

And a month after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush held a prime-time news session that attracted 64.813 million and a 42 household rating.

--Andrew Malcolm

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