An estimated 27.3 million people watched the President Joe Bidentelevised State of the Union address, the second-smallest audience for the annual event in at least 30 years Nielsen the company said on Wednesday.
That was down about 28% from the 38.2 million people who watched Biden’s address in 2022.
The only small audience since 1993 was the 26.9 million who watched Biden’s address Congress in 2021 — not an official State of the Union speech, as he had just taken office a few months earlier. That speech was delivered unusually late on 28 April.
Nielsen didn’t have data from before the president Bill ClintonThe first address to Congress, which reached 66.9 million people in 1993, was when entertainment options were few.
Nielsen said nearly three-quarters (73%) of people who watched Biden’s speech were 55 and older. Only 5% were young adults under the age of 35.
The speech was telecast live on 16 television networks.
Nielsen said Biden’s biggest audience came on Fox News Channel, where 4.69 million people watched the speech. For Biden, ABC had 4.41 million viewers, NBC 3.78 million, CBS 3.64 million, MSNBC 3.55 million, CNN 2.4 million and Fox Broadcast Network 1.66 million.