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President Joe Biden’s address regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict drew in nearly 22 million viewers during its Thursday primetime airing across broadcast channels and cable news, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day figures.
As viewers tuned in to hear the speech — which garnered approximately 21.84 million viewers during its 8 to 8:15 p.m. airing — ABC and Fox News secured the largest viewership among broadcast channels and cable news, respectively. With primetime programming pushed 15 minutes to account for the speech, ABC drew in the highest audience among the broadcast networks for the address with 4.65 million viewers.
Of the other major broadcasters, NBC scored the second highest viewership for the address with 3.57 million viewers, while CBS took third place with 3.46 million viewers and Fox locking down the fourth highest viewership with 1.45 million viewers.
Similarly, ABC scored the highest viewership in the key broadcast demo among adults 18-19 as the network secured a 0.45, this time with CBS coming in second place in terms of ratings with a 0.41 score. NBC came next with a 0.33 score while Fox had the lowest rating among the major broadcasters with a 0.25 rating.
As expected, Fox News swept the major cable news channel with 3.35 million total viewers, while MSNBC scored a total viewership of 2.11 and CNN secured 1.40 million viewers. Fox News also dominated in the key cable demographic among adults 25-54 with 455,000 demo viewers, with CNN coming in second place with 338,000 demo viewers and MSNBC trailing behind with a demo viewership of 240,000.
Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision scored the largest audience with 1.27 million people tuning in for the speech, while Telemundo scored a total viewership of 858,000. The same can be said for the broadcast network’s 18-49 demo rating, as Univision locked down a 0.3 rating while Telemundo garnered a 0.2 rating.
In Biden’s address, the President discussed the U.S.’s response to the Israel-Hama conflict, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as well as ongoing efforts to support Ukraine during its invasion by Russia.
