President Trump's address to Congress draws 36.6 million viewers, down from first term

President Trump delivered the longest-ever statesmanlike code to a associated league of Congress connected Tuesday, but the TV ratings fell abbreviated of his erstwhile outings.

The code averaged 36.6 cardinal viewers, according to Nielsen data, an summation of astir 14% from erstwhile President Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address.

The assemblage for Trump’s archetypal quality successful his 2nd nonconsecutive word fell beneath the levels of his past speeches. His archetypal code successful 2017 was watched by 47.7 cardinal viewers, portion his State of the Union addresses scored 45.5 cardinal successful 2018, 46.8 cardinal successful 2019 and 37.1 cardinal successful 2020.

Trump spoke for an hr and 40 minutes, topping erstwhile President Clinton’s record-setting stemwinder fixed astatine the 2000 State of the Union, which ran for an hr and 28 minutes.

The TV scenery has changed since Trump emerged arsenic a governmental unit 10 years ago, with the fig of homes that person cablegram declining dramatically.

Many TV quality organizations presented Trump’s code connected YouTube oregon their ain livestreaming platforms, but not each of that viewing is included successful the Nielsen assemblage total.

Fox News had the astir TV viewers for the speech, with 10.7 cardinal watching sum led by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum. ABC finished 2nd with 6.3 cardinal viewers, followed by CBS (4 million), NBC (3.9 million), the Fox broadcast web (2.7 million), MSNBC (1.9 million) and CNN (1.9 million).

Trump’s rowdy code — a litany of actions taken during his archetypal 43 days successful bureau and a database of his plans for the aboriginal — was interrupted by immoderate Democratic legislators successful the House chamber. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was removed aft helium stood and shook his cane toward the president successful the opening minutes of his speech.