According to statistics released on Wednesday, President Joe Biden’s State of the Union (SOTU) speech had a lackluster response from television watchers, drawing the second-smallest audience in at least 30 years.
According to the Nielsen firm, 27.3 million people watched the president’s speech on major broadcast and cable news networks, which is a decrease of roughly 28% from the 38.2 million viewers of Biden’s speech in 2022.
According to Nielsen figures, 73% of viewers were 55 years of age or older. Only 5% of the population were young adults under 35.
The 26.9 million Americans who watched Joe Biden’s speech in 2021, which wasn’t technically a SOTU address because he had just recently entered office, had the smallest audience since 1993, according to the AP.
16 television networks broadcast the address live.
According to Nielsen, the Fox News Channel had the speech’s greatest audience, with 4.69 million viewers. Biden received 4.41 million viewers on ABC, 3.78 million on NBC, 3.64 million on CBS, 3.55 million on MSNBC, 2.4 million on CNN, and 1.66 million on the Fox broadcast network.
In addition, Biden’s address garnered fewer “extremely good” ratings than those of his predecessors, including former President Donald Trump, according to Breitbart News.
In the CNN poll, 72 percent said they were at least somewhat pleased with Biden’s address, while 38 percent said they were “extremely” pleased.
That, though, is less than the norm for previous administrations. For instance, 74 people on average agreed with Trump’s SOTU address, but of them, 54 percent said they agreed “very” strongly, compared to the 38 percent who agreed with Biden’s speech on Tuesday.
Additionally, the percentages of those who said they thought former President George W. Bush’s and former President Barack Obama’s SOTU addresses were “extremely” good were 50 percent and 53 percent, respectively.
Additionally, a median of 54% of respondents said they agreed or strongly agreed with the previous president Bill Clinton’s SOTU addresses.
