Obama's Inauguration was the most watched in American history.

[jefferson_dem]

In desperate search for a glimmer of silver lining, right wingers are claiming that more people tuned into Reagan in 1981. Let's get this straight. By one estimate, 37.8 million watched Obama on teevee while 41.8 million watched Reagan in 1981. What Obama's numbers don't account for is the tidal wave of viewers who linked to the festivities via an online feed. We'll never know the exact count but surely it amounts to more than four million. I know of at least four people who tried to find an open server with good buffering...without luck. CNN.com, MSNBC, C-SPAN were all slammed. Don't let them lie. Obama wins again.

EDITED TO ADD LINK WITH PROOF:

News sites, including CNN.com, shattered records for viewers watching live streaming video online. And, sometimes for the first time, news sites carried video feeds on their front pages.

About 7.7 million people watched the inauguration on Tuesday online at the same time, according to Akamai Technologies Inc. That likely makes the inauguration the single most-watched event in the history of live Web video, according to the company, which handles Web traffic for more than 150 news sites worldwide, including nytimes.com, Ustream, Viacom, WSJ.com and others.

Across the day, nearly 27 million people watched streaming video on CNN.com Live on Tuesday, according to CNN spokeswoman Jennifer Martin. That's more than five times the site's previous record, set on Election Day, when 5.3 million people watched streaming video of the day's events.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/01/21/inauguration.online.video/

[alsame]

1. And it was also shown in movie theaters across the country. And

in schools.

[jefferson_dem]

3. True.

There were also many more opportunities to watch teevee and NOT WATCH the inauguration this year than in 1981. Back then, most households still used rabbit ears and if folks wanted to watch teevee...they had maybe a dozen options (half of which were carrying the inauguration). It was a captive audience.

[TTUBatfan2008]

2. Were the TV ratings including cable broadcasts?

Because cable wasn't a big factor back then, so if they are comparing network broadcasts, it's not a fair comparison. One report I saw referred to "local" broadcasts, which would mean network broadcasts rather than cable.

[tridim]

4. 10 out of 10 people at my office watched online

Of course I was at home watching. So by my math, multiply 37.8 million by at least 10 to get the true number.

[ZombieHorde]

5. The population increases every year, so no surprise there.

Still has been a great few days though!

[jesus_of_suburbia]

6. I recorded it so I could give it to my AA/Latino/Caucasian niece one day!

She was born in 2008, and I know she will want to see it as it happened (probably 20-40 years from now, but I know she will like the fact that her uncle was thinking of her!

[skeewee08]

7. What about the people that watched it at work in their break rooms

[Butch350]

8. I thought it was Nixon's ???

[NYC_SKP]

9. Worldwide viewership...

We must have KILLED any prior records.