Obama's ratings slide: press conference down 29%

Audience interest in Barack Obama’s news conferences seems to be falling, with Wednesday’s press event drawing the president’s smallest primetime audience since his inauguration.

The telecast to mark Obama’s 100th day in office was viewed by 28.8 million people, according to Nielsen. That's a 29% drop from the president's last press conference, on March 24, and a 42% fall since his first, on Feb. 9.

Ten networks carried the telecast, which is one less than last time since Fox elected to run its detective drama Lie to Me (7.8 million, 2.3 national adults 18-49 rating) instead. Airing its regular entertainment programming saved Fox ad dollars but didn’t help the show much. Lie pulled the same rating it did last week. Yet, like last week, it won the 8 p.m. hour.

Here's the president's last three primetime news events:

Feb: 9: 49.5 million
March 24: 40.4 million
April 29: 28.8 million

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