captive audience

Idioms  

1. Listeners or onlookers who have no choice but to attend. For example, It's a required course and, knowing he has a captive audience, the professor rambles on endlessly. This expression, first recorded in 1902, uses captive in the sense of “unable to escape.”

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Example Sentences

Tove Taalesen, who is royal correspondent for the Nettavisen website and worked inside the palace for a number of years, believes the crown prince made a big mistake in failing to make his stepson's role clear when he married Mette-Marit in August 2001 and showed the four-year-old to a captive audience from the palace balcony.

From BBC

"We would go on the road with no plans, no hotels booked, no gigs lined up and we thought the only place we might find a captive audience was at a university - a completely off-the-wall idea but I'm glad we did it."

From BBC

As played by Hawke, Hart adores holding court, entertaining his captive audience with witty put-downs and gossipy Broadway anecdotes.

From Los Angeles Times

In the hospital newborns are a captive audience, so it’s easier to get them there than waiting for a later visit, which some may miss.

From The Wall Street Journal

They wanted a captive audience for long enough to lay out their case for change.

From Los Angeles Times