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Bush tops American Idol
25/01/2007 23:17 - (SA)
New York - For one night, US President George W Bush drew more TV viewers than American Idol.
An estimated 45.5 million people watched the president deliver his state of the union policy speech before congress on Tuesday night, according to Nielsen Media Research. The speech was televised on nine different TV networks.
The Fox network's American Idol, which aired right before the president in most of the country, was seen by 32.6 million people.
While both British Idol judge Simon Cowell and Bush have been the targets of plenty of criticism, their Nielsen ratings are looking up. Bush's speech was seen by 9% more people than in 2006, while the American Idol viewership was up 8% over its pre-state of the union broadcast last year.
More people watched Bush speak on NBC, with 9.33 million viewers. Fox had 8.4 million, CBS 8 million and ABC 7 million, Nielsen said.
On cable, Fox News Channel's coverage of the speech was seen by 4.6 million people, CNN had 2.4 million and MSNBC had 1.6 million.
- AP
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