Americans love their policy-wonk discussions. Who knew?

The most-watched program last night wasn't "Two and a Half Men" or "CSI: Miami" - it was Barack Obama's first primetime press conference, which was seen by 37.19 million people on the four major networks, handily beating The CW's "Gossip Girl" by 35.52 million viewers. 9.75 million watched it on NBC, which is significantly more than the network usually gets when "Chuck" occupies the timeslot. (Ben Silverman is trying to sign Obama to do a press conference every week.)

Add those who were watching on the cable news channels, and the number sails over the 40-million mark, which is better even than an episode of "American Idol."

Obama got some good reviews: E! called it "a bravura performance," while "Access Hollywood" raved, "Obama proved adept at making even macroeconomics seem fun and exciting!" Fox News, on the other hand, groused, "He used too many words. Had Bush still been President, the whole thing would've lasted 10 minutes, tops."

The guy who asked Obama about Alex Rodriguez apparently thought Bush was still President, and offered up a question he figured he'd be able to answer.