TV Ratings: Trump’s Address to Congress Draws 36.6M Viewers

President Donald Trump‘s first address to Congress of his term drew an audience larger than three of those by his predecessor, Joe Biden, but also smaller than any from Trump’s first term.

According to Nielsen, 36.63 million people watched the 100-minute speech across 15 networks. That’s about 14 percent more viewers than Biden’s final State of the Union last year (32.23 million viewers) on 14 cable and broadcast outlets.

The numbers fell short, however, of any address from Trump’s first term. His four addresses to a joint session of Congress averaged 44.3 million viewers, with a low of 37.17 million in 2020. (The first speech to Congress of an incoming president’s term is not technically a State of the Union address.)

The 15 broadcast and cable outlets airing the speech were ABC, CBS, CNN, CNNe, Fox, Fox Business, Fox News, Merit Street, MSNBC, NBC, Newsmax, Newsnation, PBS, Telemundo and Univision.

Fox News led all outlets with 10.7 million viewers, well ahead of second-place ABC (6.33 million). CBS had 4.01 million viewers, followed by NBC at 3.91 million and the Fox broadcast network at 2.65 million. CNN’s 1.93 million viewers just edged out MSNBC’s 1.92 million. The remaining 5.18 million viewers were spread across the other nine channels.

The audience for the speech skewed toward older viewers (as multi-network political broadcasts usually do). Nielsen says almost 71 percent of Tuesday’s audience (about 25.91 million people) were 55 or older. About 7.52 million adults 35-54 watched the coverage, with only about 2.1 million adults 18-34 tuning in. That leaves roughly 1.1 million viewers ages 17 and under who watched the address.

The largest audience in recent history for a State of the Union or address to Congress is 66.9 million viewers for the first one of Bill Clinton’s presidency in 1993. Biden’s first speech to Congress in 2021 is the low at 26.94 million viewers.

March 5, 3:27 p.m. Updated with ratings figures for individual networks.