UPDATED with the latest: President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address drew an estimated 27.3 million viewers, down 29% from a year earlier, according to Nielsen.
That number is the lowest viewership for a SOTU in at least 30 years, according to Nielsen records. Biden’s 2021 speech before a joint session of Congress drew 26.9 million, but that event, which came just months into his presidency, was not an official State of the Union address.
Nielsen’s numbers were measurements of 16 television stations. Last year, 38.2 million viewers watched 16 channels.
According to Nielsen, 59% watched coverage on the broadcast network and 41% watched coverage on cable. About 73% of viewers were 55 and older, 19% between 35 and 54 and 5% between 18 and 34.
According to updated data, Fox News topped the coverage with an average of 4.69 million viewers, followed by ABC at 4.4 million, NBC at 3.8 million, CBS at 3.64 million, MSNBC at 3.6 million, CNN at 2 .4 million and Fox Broadcasting with 1.66 million.
In the 25-54 demo, ABC recorded 1.08 million viewers, followed by NBC at 1.0 million, Fox News at 846,000, CBS at 708,000, CNN at 646,000, MSNBC at 496,000 and Fox Broadcasting at 509,009 .
SOTU audiences may have been influenced by TNT’s NBA coverage, as LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA scoring record. The match began in the latter part of Biden’s speech. According to Nielsen, the game averaged nearly 3 million viewers.
EARLY, Wednesday AM: President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address drew a total of 23.4 million viewers from major networks and cable news channels, up from a year earlier, according to early Nielsen data.
Last year, SOTU viewers averaged about 32.3 million across Fox News, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox Broadcasting and MSNBC. Viewership dropped across the networks.
The total viewership is likely to increase as more news channels are added later in the day.
Fox News drew the largest audience with a total of 4.57 million viewers, followed by ABC with 4.27 million, NBC with 3.68 million, CBS with 3.52 million, MSNBC with 3.46 million, CNN with 2.13 million and Fox Broadcasting with 1.6 million.
ABC was first in the 25-54 demo with 1.03 million, followed by NBC with 978,000, Fox News with 793,000, CBS with 675,000, CNN with 617,000, Fox Broadcasting with 482,000 and MSNBC with 479,000.
The final part of the speech had to compete with some counterprogramming: TNT’s NBA coverage, in which LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA scoring record.
SOTU night is an important moment for all networks to introduce their presenters, correspondents and analysts to a wider audience.
But that measurement has gotten a little harder to spot with the rise of streaming, and there’s no standard for measuring those who watch network services like ABC News Live, NBC News Now and CBS News Streaming.
NBC, meanwhile, noted that the cumulative viewership for three of its linear networks with SOTU coverage — NBC, MSNBC and CNBC — was 7.1 million. It also drew 1.46 million viewers in the 25-54 demo.
Source: Deadline
Mary Crossley is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. She is a seasoned journalist who is dedicated to delivering the latest news to her readers. With a keen sense of what’s important, Mary covers a wide range of topics, from politics to lifestyle and everything in between.
