Trump Congressional Speech Comes Up Short In Viewership: Here's How Many People Watched

President Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night drew a large audience, but viewership numbers are significantly down from his previous presidential speeches.

What Happened: On Tuesday, Trump spoke for over one hour and 40 minutes. Among the various topics he addressed were tariffs, inflation, eggs, Elon Musk, the Department of Government Efficiency, international relations, oil drilling, taxation and the CHIPS Act.

The speech broke the previous record held by former President Bill Clinton. In 2000, Clinton delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress for one hour and 28 minutes.

While the length of the speech set records for Trump, it failed to break any viewership records.

An average of 36.6 million viewers tuned into Trump's speech Tuesday according to Nielsen data, reported by Variety.

This marked a 13% increase from former President Joe Biden‘s 2024 State of the Union speech. Biden drew an average of 32.2 million viewers.

While Trump's speech wasn't an official State of the Union speech given his short time in the White House, the viewership lagged previous Trump speeches to Congress.

During his first term, Trump topped that figure in each of his annual State of the Union speeches to Congress. See below:

• 2017: 47.7 million
• 2018: 45.6 million
• 2019: 46.8 million
• 2020: 37.2 million

Viewership figures include the major networks and cable outlets that broadcast Trump's speech, but may not include all of the streaming viewership which could factor into the declines.

Fox News, which is owned by Fox Corporation FOXFOXA said it led the way in Tuesday viewership with an average of 10.7 million viewers during Trump's speech according to the report.

Nielsen also tracked the age of viewers, with an older audience tuning into the broadcast and cable networks to view Trump's speech as seen below:

• 18-34: 5.7% of viewers
• 35-54: 20.5% of viewers
• 55 or older: 70.7% of viewers

Here are the viewership figures for Biden's past State of the Union speeches:

• 2021: 26.9 million
• 2022: 38.2 million
• 2023: 27.3 million
• 2024: 32.2 million

Read Also: Trump Approval Rating Declines In February: ‘Unpopular Domestic And Foreign Policy Ideas’

Why It's Important: With the media landscape shifting to streaming and other non-traditional viewership methods, it could be tough to compare the viewership from Tuesday's speech to past presidential speeches.

The same could likely be said for Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20. An average of 24.59 million viewers watched Trump's inauguration, which was down from 33.76 million who tuned into Biden's first inauguration in 2017 (30.64 million).

Fox News, which is Republican-leaning, also led the way in viewership for Trump's inauguration.

The 2024 election cycle saw many broadcast and cable news outlets see a boost in viewership and advertising revenue with viewers tuning in for coverage.

With Trump now in office, viewership figures appear to have dropped and less people may be willing to tune in to hear him speak while in office this time around.

When it comes to companies benefitting from Trump in office again, Fox News is likely the winner.

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