Obama brings ‘Tonight Show’ high approval ratings
Associated Press
Friday, March 20, 2009
New York — Nielsen is giving high approval ratings to President Barack Obama’s appearance on NBC’s “Tonight Show.”
Obama’s visit with Jay Leno, the first by a sitting president, scored a national rating of 11.2 in metered-market households. That’s the highest number since January 2005, when “Tonight” paid tribute to the late Johnny Carson. The last time “Tonight” logged a higher rating was following the “Seinfeld” finale in May 1998.
Associated Press
President Barack Obama appears on NBC’s ‘Tonight Show’ with Jay Leno in Burbank, Calif. on March 19, 2009.
Locally, the ratings were about 20 percent below the national average. But that’s not unusual in metro Atlanta for shows on the NBC affiliate WXIA-TV.Still, about 300,000 Atlantans viewed the show, more than double the norm.
Thursday’s telecast nearly tripled the show’s national season-average 3.9 household rating.
These preliminary numbers measure Nielsen households in 56 U.S. markets.
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