Bush’s Iraq speech draws career-low TV audience

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – President Bush’s latest address tothe nation, urging Americans to stand firm in Iraq, drew thesmallest TV audience of his tenure, Nielsen Media Researchreported on Wednesday.

Live coverage of Bush’s half-hour speech on Tuesday nightfrom the Ft. Bragg military base in North Carolina averaged 23million viewers combined on four major U.S. broadcast networksand three leading cable news channels, Nielsen said.

Designed largely to bolster sagging public support for thepersistently bloody conflict in Iraq, the speech fell 8.6million viewers shy of Bush’s previous low as president, hisAug. 9, 2001 address on stem cell research, which was carriedon six networks.

Even Bush’s last prime-time address, his April 28 speech onSocial Security overhaul, drew more viewers: 32.7 million.

Bush garnered the biggest U.S. TV audience of hispresidency — 82 million viewers on nine networks — when headdressed a joint session of Congress nine days after the Sept.11, 2001, attacks on America.

By comparison, his May 1, 2003, speech from the deck of anaircraft carrier declaring an end to major combat operations inIraq averaged 48.4 million viewers.

Television viewing levels in general drop off during thesummer months, and the second most-watched telecast on Tuesdaynight was a repeat edition of a “48 Hours Mystery” on CBS,which averaged just 7.4 million viewers.

CBS also accounted for the biggest share of Bush’s audienceon Tuesday night, with more than 5.5 million tuning in to theViacom Inc.-owned network to watch the president.

But No. 2 NBC, which ran a full 30 minutes of post-speechanalysis, led the networks in that half hour with nearly 5.3million viewers. Its rivals switched back to entertainmentprogramming for most of that half hour and drew smalleraudiences.

Three of the major broadcast networks — CBS, NBC and Fox– did not decide until the day of the speech to carry it. ABCannounced on Monday that it would cover the address.