Biden speech to joint session of Congress attracted millions less than Trump did in 2017

President Biden's first speech before a joint session of Congress attracted far less viewers than former President Donald Trump did in 2017.

Biden's address on Wednesday was watched by around an estimated 26.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen, which noted that this included ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, TEL, UNI, PBS, CNBC, CNN, CNNe, Fox Business Network, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and Newsy.

"It’s important to note that out-of-home (OOH) viewing as well as connected TV (CTV) viewing are included in the 2021 total figures for this television (TV) ratings advisory. Contribution coming from CTVs can be as much as 11% for televised political events," Nielsen noted.

Nielsen's figure for Trump's 2017 address was around 47.7 million.