32 million watched Trump's State of the Union address
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More than 32 million people watched President Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday night, down from the roughly 36 million that tuned in to last year's address to a joint session of Congress.
Reality check: It's also down significantly from the 45 million that tuned in to his address in 2018 during the second year of his first term.
The big picture: State of the Union address viewership, like most live television programs, has declined in recent years as younger viewers flock to social media and streaming channels to catch up on big events.
- The vast majority of those that did tune in on live television Tuesday (72%) were people over 55-years-old, per Nielsen.
Zoom in: The address was carried across 15 U.S. broadcast and cable networks, in English and some in Spanish.
- Fox News drew the biggest audience numbers of all networks, with over 9 million people tuning into the speech on average between 9:15pm and 11:00pm ET, followed on cable by MS Now (formerly MSNBC) with 2.4 million viewers and CNN with 2.2 million viewers.
- ABC led the broadcast networks with 5.1 million viewers, followed by NBC with 3.6 million viewers and CBS with 3.3 million viewers.
Zoom out: Trump's 108-minute-long speech, which set a new record for the longest address to Congress, featured a slew of popular figures among both parties, including gold-medal Olympians and veterans.
- While there were a few confrontational moments between the president and Democrats who attended the address, the speech was mostly focused on projecting strength and confidence in the president's accomplishments and agenda.
