Television ratings for Biden’s State of the Union address take a nosedive
Less than 30 million people watched President Biden’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening, according to Nielsen Media Research data.
The number of total viewers is down significantly from the 38 million who watched Biden’s speech last year and is almost half the 45.6 million who watched former President Trump’s first address in 2018.
On cable, Fox News topped all networks, notching 4.6 million viewers. It was followed by MSNBC, which brought in 3.5 million, and CNN, which netted 2.3 million.
Fox News also outpaced each of the major broadcast networks, including ABC, which brought in 4.4 million viewers, and NBC, which had 3.7 million.
Last year, Fox brought in a whopping 7.2 million viewers, followed by CNN at 4.8 million and MSNBC at 4.1 million.
During the prime-time address, Biden focused on the economy, police reform, federal regulation of large corporations and other key wedge issues. Republicans, meanwhile, made headlines for heckling and jeering the president from their seats.
The speech was widely seen as Biden’s entrance into a campaign for a second term, with several television news pundits noting the State of the Union has one of the largest captive audiences he will speak to this year.
Fox News anchors after Tuesday’s speech noted that the White House has yet to agree to a customary sit-down interview during the pregame show before the Super Bowl, another typically highly rated event, which is being aired on Fox broadcast network on Sunday.
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