It's Obama's Day, but American Idol's Night

Idol takes Tuesday prime-time crown; inauguration ceremony watched by nearly 38 million, second most on record

Tuesday TV's Old-World Headline: "American Idol Beats Barack Obama!"

Tuesday TV's Post-Partisan Headline: "Everybody Wins, Everybody Loses; We're All in This Together—Kumbaya!"

What Happened: In the 8 p.m. hour, Idol (22.4 million, per Nielsen estimates) killed ABC's Inaugural Night concert special (12.6 million). At the same time, Inaugural Night put a hurt into Idol. TV's behemoth was down nearly 8 million viewers from last week's two-hour season opener. In the 18-49 demo, it was down 23 percent. Fox resorted to calling Idol's performance "surprising[ly] strong," and predicted the show's numbers would go up more than usual once a week's worth of DVR playback is added in.

What Simon Cowell Should Hope to Never See Again: Four—count 'em, four—Obamas.

Combine ABC's two-hour Obama concert with its hourlong news special (9.5 million), and NBC's (6.2 million) and CBS' (6.9 million) own Inauguration Night offerings, and you find a Tuesday-best 35.2 million watched prime-time Obama coverage on free TV. No matter how you crunch the numbers, though, Idol still ruled in the demo. And, officially, it was the night's most-watched show.

More Obama-Mania! Yesterday's actual inaugural ceremony, aired live by up to 14 broadcast and cable networks, was watched by 37.8 million, Nielsen declared, making it the second most-watched swearing-in on record after Ronald Reagan's 41.8 million in 1981.

All the President's Ratings: Obama blew past Richard Nixon (27 million in 1969; 33 million in 1973), Jimmy Carter (34.1 million in 1977), George H.W. Bush (23.3 million in 1989), Bill Clinton (29.7 milion in 1993; 21.6 million in 1997), and Reagan's second Inaugural in 1985 (25.1 million).

Obama outdrew George W. Bush's 2001 swearing-in (29 million). And, when it came to Bush's 2005 Inaugural, he was like American Idol stomping on a poor, defenseless According to Jim. Compared to that ceremony, the least-watched on record, with 15.5 million viewers, the audience for Obama's big day was up by more than 140 percent, representing an increase of more than 22 million viewers.

History and Freeways Don't Mix: Among the top TV markets, the Obama show drew the highest rating in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. Surprisingly, it drew the lowest ratings in three Obama-friendly regions: San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, Portland and Seattle-Tacoma. Unsurprisingly, those cities are all on the West Coast, where the swearing-in aired during the morning commute.

Take That, Stock Market: Obama's first day on the job didn't bring investors luck, but it worked wonders for TV shows. Idol aside, NBC's The Biggest Loser (10.2 million) and the CW's 90210 (2.4 million) and Privileged (1.7 million) all posted substantial gains—Privileged, for one, was up 55 percent in viewers.

Back in the Mainstream: At 9 p.m., Fox's Fringe (12.1 million) returned from winter break to win the hour in viewers and tie Biggest Loser for No. 1 in the demo.

(Originally published Jan. 21, 2008 at 11:57 a.m. PT)