The inauguration of Donald Trump on Friday was watched by 30.6 million television viewers, well below—19 percent, to be exact—the 37.8 million that President Barack Obama pulled in for his first swearing-in ceremony in 2009, according to the Los Angeles Times. Sad!
Trump's numbers did surpass the 20.6 million people who tuned in to see Obama's second inauguration, however, viewership tends to be higher when a new president is sworn in. When it comes to new presidents, Trump's numbers were higher than that of George H.W. Bush in 1989, Bill Clinton in 1993, and George W. Bush in 2001, who had 23.3 million, 29.7 million, and 29 million, respectively.
Fox News is reporting that their audience hit their peak of 11.76 million during the time of noon to 2:30 p.m. eastern time, which coincided with the moments when Trump took the oath of office and delivered his inaugural address. The network also easily eclipsed the viewership numbers of their rivals, NBC (5.8 million), ABC (4.9 million), CBS (4.56 million), CNN (2.46 million), and MSNBC (1.34 million).
If the weird press conference held by White House press secretary Sean Spicer where he commented on the reportedly low crowd numbers at Trump's inauguration, and Kellyanne Conway's even weirder interview on NBC’s Meet the Press earlier today tell us anything, it's that we shouldn't believe the estimated numbers of the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States. After all, it's only a matter of time before some "alternative facts" tell us otherwise.
