inexpertly photoshopped by ETP
President Bush's speech calling for (read: announcing) 21,500 more troops to be sent to Iraq (aka his "Surge Speech") drew 42.5 million viewers — more than his last last two State of the Union addresses, according to Nielsen, and drew approximately 5.5 million more viewers than his Sept. 11, 2006 address commemorating the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
On cable, Fox was the big winner, with 4.4 million viewers, almost doubling CNN's take. MSNBC had 1,211,000 total viewers (NB: Some viewers may have been scared off by Keith Olbermann's reference to Cicero; Brit Hume learned to curb his Plutarch-dropping habit long ago). Post-speech, Fox also dominated, but by a thinner margin, dropping to 3.793 million viewers from 9:22 to 10:00 (143% of the CNN audience, closer than its overall December primetime level of 186% [PDF]). Meanwhile, at MSNBC, the post-speech analysis took 1.531 million viewers (40% of FNC), but with a stronger showing in the demo: 38% of total, compared to FNC's 27%. So maybe Cicero takes it, after all.
Peaks: FNC peaked from 9:15 to 9:30, CNN from 9:30 to 9:45, and MSNBC from 9:45 to 10:00. TVNewser is on your flipping remote.
As for the nets: All of ABC, CBS and NBC covered the speech (and none of them carried the Democratic response from Dick Durbin, though it wasn't exactly what one would describe as "good TV"). WaPo's Tom Shales wraps up the post-game, noting that MSNBC had the benefit of a throw from Brian Williams. No word yet on network share for the speech.
Per Reuters: Bush's speech was still 3.5 million viewers short of his May address announcing the movement of National Guard troops to the Mexican border. Greatest hits: His post-Sept. 11th address (82 million viewers) and ultimatum to Saddam Hussein in March 2003 before the invasion of Iraq (73.4 million).
Data from TVNewser and Reuters
