NEW YORK (AP) — Approximately 24.6 million viewers watched President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the lowest audience for the quadrennial ceremony since Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.
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Nielsen company announced on Tuesday that the audience decreased compared to Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021, which reached 33.8 million viewers, and the first time Trump assumed the presidency, watched by 30.6 million in 2017.
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The audience for inaugural ceremonies has varied widely over the last half century, from a peak of 41.8 million when Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 to a low of 15.5 million for the start of George W. Bush's second term in 2004.
The duration of Trump's inauguration coverage may have harmed him in terms of bragging rights. The figure of 24.6 million represents the average number of people who tuned in to the coverage on one of the 15 television networks between 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Eastern time. In previous years, the coverage did not last as long, which meant that the averages were likely higher because people tune out as the day goes on.
Nielsen did not have an immediate estimate, for example, of how many people watched Trump until 4 p.m. Eastern time, when most of the inauguration coverage in the past has concluded.
There is no doubt about where most viewers leaned on Monday: Fox News Channel had 10.3 million viewers between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., when Trump took office and delivered his inaugural speech. In that same period, ABC had 4.7 million viewers, NBC had 4.4 million, CBS had 4.1 million, CNN had 1.7 million, and MSNBC had 848,000, according to Nielsen.
Four years ago, 13.4 million viewers watched Biden's inauguration on CNN and MSNBC, compared to just about 2.4 million on Fox News.