Matt Lauer will interview the Bushes Thursday live on “Today.”

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The 20.6 million figure was down from 37.8 million viewers in 2009, a drop of 46%. That said, it was an improvement over George W. Bush‘s second inauguration in 2005, which saw a similar percentage drop from his first.

In a post explaining the numbers, Nielsen throws in this factoid:

[V]iewership has historically slid for second term inaugurations. Pres. Richard Nixon is the only president in recent history that has seen an increase; he notched a 22 percent increase during his second term inauguration.

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Her parents, former President George W. Bush (whose nickname with his kids we learned is apparently “popsicle”) and former First lady Laura Bush called into the program after the announcement was made.

“I am fired up! Looking forward to it,” the former President said.

WATCH:

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Them’s fightin’ words to scholarly members of Colbert Nation like Penn State’s Sophia McClennen, the latest academician to write a book – with footnotes! — about the Comedy Central star.

Its title: ‘Colbert’s America: Satire and Democracy’ (Palgrave Macmillan), though I like to call it ‘I Am Satire (And So Can You!)’ Out in paperback this month, the book is part of what the Washington Post’s Paul Farhi recently labeled as ‘the academic world’s obsession’ with Colbert.

Professor McClennen, who disputes that description, does acknowledge that Colbert’s on-air persona is “a huge deal in academia. On a basic cognitive level, in-character satire is a more complex form of satire. At a rhetorical level, the comedy is more complicated.”

Uh, will there be a quiz?

A self-described ‘Colbert geek,’ McClennen argues that “The Colbert Report” heralds a new era in media culture; one in which comedians increasingly influence the politics and news they satirize.

With his Super PACS and his vocabulary-bending ‘The Word’ segments, Colbert “plays with exercising his power,” she says in an interview.

He represents a “new kind of public intellectual-satirist,” in the vein of Mark Twain, Ben Franklin and Jonathan Swift.

No offense, Professor, but Colbert, like Jon Stewart, would probably have a good laugh at

continued…

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TVNewser has learned CNN is making a slight rebrand this election cycle. CNN POLITICS replaces CNN = Politics and “America’s Choice 2012″ replaces “America Votes.”

We hear Wolf Blitzer will unveil the new branding in the NoonET hour on CNN.

CNN is also beefing up its contributor roster. As reported earlier, Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton presidential campaign adviser Maria Cardona and conservative columnist, former Pres. George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum will join CNN as political contributors.

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Fox News Channel seemed to have dominated not only in the 2010 ratings, but also the Twittershpere. The only tvnewser in Klout’s people category was #4 Glenn Beck — in between Sarah Palin and George W. Bush. President Barack Obama topped this list with Bieber in a close #2.

The only TV news show on the TV show list was #3 “Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld” — topped by ABC’s “Lost” and Fox’s “American Idol.”

Read More on AllTwitter

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Bush’s daughter, Jenna Hager, is a correspondent for “Today,” and conducted an interview for the program in April with former President Bill Clinton.

Since leaving office in early 2009, Bush has largely stayed out of the media spotlight. Now, it seems, he is finally ready to speak out. The appearances mark Bush’s first one-on-one television interviews with an American television network since leaving office.

Of course, the appearances are also tied to the release of his memoir, Decision Points, which will be available November 9.

Why choose NBC? The combination of a primetime network special and an appearance on the top broadcast morning show is sure to draw far more viewers than an appearance on any of the cable news channels, including the top-rated Fox News. When you are trying to sell a book, the size of the audience matters.

The press release is after the jump.

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Sunday will mark one year since the death of Tony Snow from cancer. He battled the disease, which originated in his colon before spreading, for more than three years.

Snow, a longtime commentator and journalist, anchored at Fox News Channel and later worked for a short time at CNN. In between his TV jobs, he served as White House Press Secretary for President George W. Bush.

This Sunday, TVNewser has learned, Fox News Channel will mark the anniversary of Snow’s death with numerous mentions of him throughout the day, along with thoughts from Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and from FNC colleagues such as Bill O’Reilly and Greta Van Susteren.

Here now are reflections from several other tvnewsers as they remember Tony Snow:

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More than a dozen crews and cameras will be placed throughout the White House this Friday. And Williams will interview Pres. Obama next Tuesday, the day before the president leaves for a trip to the Middle East and Europe.

This is the seventh installment over the last 40 years of this NBC News series. “This is one of the greatest traditions in all of broadcast television,” said Williams in a press release. “We will show aspects of life in the White House — the Obama White House — that no one on the outside has ever seen before.”

NBC’s last “Inside the White House” special was in 2002 during the George W. Bush administration and was anchored by Tom Brokaw.

More information can be found at WhiteHouse.msnbc.com.

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Zarate previously served as the Deputy Assistant to President George W. Bush and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism from 2005-2009. He is currently a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“We are very pleased that Juan’s unique insight and expertise will be available to CBS News viewers,” says SVP Paul Friedman in the release.

Click continued to see the CBS release…

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CBS Radio News’s veteran White House correspondent Mark Knoller writes about the video on CBSNews.com. “It’s a long-standing practice for reporters to rise when the president enters the East Room for a news conference, but that hasn’t been the case in the briefing room,” he writes. “The principal reason reporters remained in their seats…was not to block the shot of TV cameramen and still photographers in the back of the room.”

So why stand for Pres. Obama? “When some reporters stood up for President Obama last Friday, they forgot about the needs of their colleagues in the back of the room as well as the less formal atmosphere of the briefing room,” writes Knoller.

Today, ABC’s Jake Tapper tweets about this this video of the press corps standing for Pres. Bush’s final appearance in the briefing room.

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But one network will not cover the news conference — FOX. Repeated calls to FOX to check on their plans went unanswered this afternoon, but THR’s James Hibberd has a FOX statement: “Fox’s sister networks, Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network, will air the press conference in its entirety. Fox will be alerting viewers with an onscreen graphic at the top of the 8:00 PM (ET) hour that the press conference is available on Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Network.”

Charlie Gibson, Katie Couric and Brian Williams will anchor for their respective networks, with Couric in D.C. and Gibson and Williams in NY. Couric will anchor a live Webcast following the CBS broadcast.

At 8pmET, FOX will air a new episode of “Lie to Me.”

> Update at 5:20pmET: A FOX spokesperson did get back to us and confirmed the network would not be taking the newser.

There is, however, some precedent to the decision by FOX. In October of 2000 FOX chose not to take one of the presidential debates, while FOX (as well as CBS and NBC) chose not to air President George W. Bush‘s speech in November 2001.

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Gorged on ratings from a historic election and still riding on leftover adrenaline, the cable networks have steadfastly remained in campaign mode.

…the cable networks are loaded with red meat eaters and cud chewers. MSNBC is pretty much wall-to-wall politics with a roster to match — the obsessive Chris Matthews, the freakishly partisan Keith Olbermann and the reliably left-leaning Rachel Maddow.

Fox, too, sees politics everywhere, with Bill O’Reilly on the hunt for new enemies every day and Glenn Beck’s increasingly popular atavism. And CNN still has all manner of political boots on the ground – panels stacked like cordwood even though the election is long past.

Based on my experience working in cable news, this isn’t entirely new. In early 2001 the cable news channels covered George W. Bush‘s first 100 days just as intently, hoping to hold on to the viewership gains from the unresolved 2000 election. But Obama is not Bush, in more ways than 100. And the volume of news is much greater now than eight years ago. Recall that it took the EP-3E incident over Hainan Island in April 2001 to turn the cablers attention away from the newness of the Bush administration to how it would handle this first of many foreign policy challenges.

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He says he decided to write the book as a response to the Bush administration. “I just felt like the country was badly damaged following the eight years of George W. Bush and that collection of morons that he had around him running this country into a ditch, so without the recession we were in enough trouble,” he says.

Cafferty thinks those who are already criticizing President Barack Obama are jumping the gun. “That’s convenient for everybody to say, ‘Oh it’s the media,’” he says. “But the fact of the matter is the American public is an impatient group of people and always has been.”

As for the Cafferty Files, he says the viewer interaction is good. “I hear from thousands of people every day, so I’ve got a pretty good ongoing sense of the mood of people. So that’s helpful,” he says.

Also discussed: how Obama did in Tuesday’s news conference, what it means for the President to appear at the Univision awards tonight and NCAA brackets.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

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