Nearly 48 million watched Pres. Donald Trump‘s first address to Congress last night on 11 broadcast and cable news networks, according to Nielsen.
Fox News was the most-watched on all of TV for the speech, drawing 10.765 million. NBC was second (first among the broadcasters) drawing 9.144 million. Among the younger news demo (A25-54) NBC was first, followed by Fox News. NBC had The Voice as its lead-in. As these are Nielsen numbers, this only includes TV viewing and not viewers who watched on streaming services. Here’s the partial breakdown of TV viewers:
- 9:15-10:15 p.m. ET | Total Viewers / A25-54 demo
Fox News: 10,765,000 / 2,784,000
NBC: 9,144,000 / 3,286,000
CBS: 7,156,000 / 1,897,000
ABC: 6,065,000 / 2,074,000
CNN: 3,944,000 / 1,517,000
FOX: 3,076,000 / 1,383,000
MSNBC: 2,683,000 / 669,000
FBN 593,000 / 118,000
By comparison, President Obama’s first address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 24, 2009 averaged 52.4 million viewers on broadcast and cable. 39.8 million watched George W. Bush‘s first on Feb. 27, 2001. And 66.9 million watched, on just four networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN) watched Bill Clinton‘s first on Feb. 17, 1993.