More than 27 million viewers watched State of the Union on TV networks

The total audience is about the same as Biden’s State of the Union address last year, but smaller than his first address in 2022, which resulted in 38 million viewers.

By Natalia Mittelstadt

Published: March 8, 2024 7:08pm

More than 27 million viewers watched President Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday on television networks.

The largest audience watched the speech on Fox News, which averaged 5.8 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research's final ratings. The broadcast network with the largest audience was ABC, with an average of 5.2 million viewers. NBC had nearly 4.5 million viewers and CBS had almost 4.1 million.

Other cable networks, such as MSNBC and CNN, averaged 4.4 million viewers and 2.6 million, respectively.

The total audience is about the same as Biden’s State of the Union address last year, according to The Hill, but smaller than his first address in 2022, which resulted in 38 million viewers. Then-President Trump’s first State of the Union address in 2018 had 45.6 million viewers.

During Biden’s speech, he attacked Trump on abortion, immigration, Russia, gun control, and COVID-19. Trump was live posting his responses to Biden’s address on Truth Social, countering the president’s claims on Ukraine, NATO, and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.