On Tuesday President Biden gave the State of the Union address but according to early Nielsen data, the ratings have dropped significantly since last year. This year the State of the Union address was viewed by 23 million viewers across seven major TV networks. Last year’s State of the Union address in comparison was viewed by 34 million people.
However, in 2021 Biden’s first address to Congress also garnered 23 million views which means that the 2022 State of the Union speech for some reason had an increased number of viewers.
Fox News Channel was one of the top major TV networks in terms of ranking, with around 4.6 million viewers tuned in to watch the address there. ABC was second with 4.3 million viewers, then NBC with 3.7 million, CBS with 3.52 million, MSNBC’s 3.46 million, CNN’s 2.3 million, and Fox Broadcasting’s 1.6 million viewers.
Fox News also had the most viewers in the advertiser-coveted demographic of those between the ages of 25-54, with 793,000 demo viewers. CNN by comparison only had 617,000, while MSNBC had 479,000.
In last year’s State of the Union address, Fox News Channel was only again leading, but CNN had been ahead of MSNBC.
In general, the address was viewed positively by fans of the President while Republicans maintained that the President continued to be decisive by making statements about the Republicans wanting to sunset Social Security and Medicare. These statements also elicited loud responses and shouting from the Republicans
