Donald Trump’s second State of the Union Address drew 46.8 million total viewers across 12 TV channels, according to Nielsen.
That’s up 2.6 percent from his 2018 speech, which drew 45.6 million viewers across that same number of channels. This one was delayed a week due to the federal government shutdown.
Read Tuesday’s earliest-available SOTU ratings — the household numbers for the English-language broadcast nets — here. And see how the rest of broadcast TV fared in fast-affiliate ratings here. Both sets of data have their own limitations.
Here is how the three main cable news channels and Big 4 broadcast networks stacked up last night for Trump’s SOTU, in terms of total viewers from 9-10:30 p.m. ET:
FNC delivered 11.1 million P2+ and 2.8 million A25-54
NBC delivered 7.1 million P2+ and 2.6 million A25-54
CBS delivered 6.7 million P2+ and 1.9 million A25-54
ABC delivered 5.9 million P2+ and 1.8 million A25-54
FOX delivered 4.2 million P2+ and 1.7 million A25-54
MSNBC delivered 3.8 million P2+ and 798K A25-54
CNN delivered 3.4 million P2+ and 1.2 million A25-54
And here is how many eyeballs the Democratic response — delivered by Stacey Abrams — attracted from 10:45-11 p.m. ET:
FNC: 6.4 million P2+ and 1.6 million A25-54
CNN: 3.3 million P2+ and 1.2 million A25-54
MSNBC: 4.7 million P2+ and 1.1 million A25-54
ABC: 4.6 million P2+ and 1.4 million A25-54
NBC: 5.4 million P2+ and 2.1 million A25-54
CBS: 4.7 million P2+ and 1.4 million A25-54
Yes, Fox News dominated all of television, again.
For reference, this is what Trump’s 2018 address pulled in:
Fox News Channel: 11.5 million total viewers
NBC: 7.1 million
CBS: 7 million
ABC: 5.4 million
Fox (Broadcast): 3.6 million
CNN: 3.1 million
MSNBC: 2.7 million
For what it’s worth, Barack Obama’s second SOTU got 48 million viewers, which was down from the 52.4 million his first had in 2009. The recorded-history record still belongs to Bill Clinton, who addressed 66.9 million people back in 1993.