President Trump’s second State of the Union address — this one rescheduled after the federal government finally got back to work — rose 10.1 percent from his first in the earliest-available broadcast TV ratings.
CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox combined for a 16.3 overnight rating in Trump’s Tuesday time slot. Last year, for 45’s first State of the Union Address, the broadcast networks posted a 14.8 overnight rating together in Nielsen’s 56 metered markets.
Hell, this one was even higher than Trump’s first national address in office, which combined for a 16 overnight rating across broadcast. Crunching some numbers, Tuesday’s address was 1.9 percent higher in these initial, broadcast-only returns than Trump’s 2017 turn.
A president’s first such speech is never considered a “State of the Union,” as they just took office.
Last night, CBS led the way from 9 to 10:30 — yes, it was a long speech — with a 4.6 rating/7 share in households. That just barely edged NBC’s 4.5/7 and had a little more padding against ABC’s 4.1/7. Fox broadcast brought up the rear with a 3.1/5, on average.
We’ll get some preliminary viewership data from the broadcast networks around 8 a.m. PT or so. Stats for the cable news networks will come later.
Should tradition hold, Fox News Channel is almost certain to lead all platforms in terms of eyeballs. That said, NBC usually leads the way on broadcast, and that isn’t the case in the very early going this morning.