Fox News Leads As 32M Watched SOTU

More than 32 million viewers watched President Biden’s State of the Union address across 14 separate broadcast and cable networks Thursday night, with Fox News Channel drawing the largest single audience, 5.640 million viewers. ABC had the largest single audience among the broadcast networks, with 5.024 million viewers—the third consecutive State of the Union that ABC’s coverage outperformed all other broadcast news networks.

Forbes reports viewership for the address was up about 18 percent from one year ago, with several networks setting viewing records. MSNBC had its largest State of the Union viewership in the network’s history, making Thursday night MSNBC’s most-watched night of the year to date.

Among total viewers, NBC broadcast had the third largest audience behind Fox News and ABC, with 4.328 million viewers. MSNBC was fourth overall with 4.2 million viewers, followed closely by CBS with 3.935 million viewers. CNN (2.511 million viewers), followed by Fox broadcast (1.714 million viewers), Fox Business (240,000 viewers), and CNBC (112,000 viewers).

Among viewers 25-54—the key demographic valued by advertisers—NBC was first with 1.114 million viewers, followed by ABC (1.074 million viewers), Fox News Channel (1.031 million viewers), CBS (824,054 viewers), CNN (646,000 viewers), MSNBC (611,000 viewers), Fox broadcast (516,738 viewers), Fox Business (40,000 viewers), and CNBC (35,000 viewers).

The president’s address laid out an agenda for a second term, and drew sharp contrast between Biden’s record and that of the presumed Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, who Biden referred to only as “my predecessor.”