BC, CBS and NBC may not have covered the president's speech in Cincinnati on Monday night, but it was still one of the most-watched television events of the evening.
A combined audience of nearly 17 million people watched it on the Fox broadcast network and the three major cable networks, Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC, according to estimates by Nielsen Media Research.
Those figures do not include people who watched on C-Span, which is not rated, and those who caught it on the relatively few local stations that also carried it..
Just the same, even the incomplete estimates surprised cable news executives, and bolstered the case of critics who questioned the broadcasters' decision to forgo live coverage of a presidential speech when war potentially looms.
The networks said they did not carry it because the administration did not expressly ask them to, as is customary for important addresses. Another factor, they said, was that they did not expect the president to say anything very new.
Still, people were interested enough to seek the speech out on cable in above-average numbers. The Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC were watched by average audiences of 4.5 million, 2.6 million and 1.2 million people, respectively, during the speech. Those networks had average audiences last month of 2 million, 765,000 and 452,000 people on Mondays between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Nearly 8.5 million people watched the speech on the Fox broadcast network.
The address handily beat its direct competition on the other broadcast networks. "The Drew Carey Show" was watched by 4.5 million people on ABC; "King of Queens" was watched by 11.7 million people on CBS; "Fear Factor" was watched by 12.2 million people on NBC.
Administration officials were clearly pleased.
"The American people are exercising their role in our democracy, which is to tune in, listen, and make judgments," said Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary.