Ahead of Wednesday morning’s contentious presser with president-elect/Apprentice producer Donald Trump, President Obama blanketed the airwaves with one final address as commander in chief Tuesday night. Live coverage of President Obama’s Chicago speech brought in 34 million viewers across the Big Four broadcast networks and the three main cable news networks. (THR / Live Feed)
The speech hit biggest for NBC and CNN. In addition to NBC’s 8.91 million viewers and 2.5 rating that topped the Big 4, CNN bested rivals MSNBC and Fox News on the cable side, averaging 3.7 million total viewers from 9-10 p.m. ET. (Deadline)
On ABC from 9-9:30 p.m., 5.57 million tuned in, with a 1.3 demo rating. CBS drew a 1.2 and 7.08 million viewers. Fox had the smallest audience for that portion of the evening, with a 0.8 in the demo and 2.59 million viewers. That’s an average audience of 23.81 million viewers in that half-hour slot. (Variety)