An estimated viewer of 26.9 million viewers across 16 U.S. were cited viewing President Joe Biden’s first address to Congress on Wednesday, according to Nielsen rating data released on Thursday.
A record low number of viewers viewed Joe Biden’s speech to a sparsely populated group in Congress last night. The first report on viewership showed just over 11 million viewers, and the second number over 7 networks was 22.6 million viewers.
Comparing numbers from President Trump’s years in office makes the numbers even more glaringly bad:
Joint Session Address ratings:
TRUMP 2017— 48M
TRUMP 2018— 46M
TRUMP 2019— 46.8M
TRUMP 2020— 37.2M
BIDEN 2021— 11.6M
Joint Session Address ratings:
TRUMP 2017— 48M
TRUMP 2018— 46M
TRUMP 2019— 46.8M
TRUMP 2020— 37.2M
BIDEN 2021— 11.6M— Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 29, 2021
President Trump had 48 million viewers watching his first Joint Session speech!
You’d think some of those +80 million Biden voters* would have showed up to listen to the most popular president in history give his first big speech.
Incredible how these 80 million Americans* never show on ratings, rallies, YouTube live feeds, boat parades, whatever
Ya there?
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) April 29, 2021
Another measure of Biden’s popularity was showing last night when the ‘dislikes’ outnumbered the ‘likes’ on the YouTube video of Biden’s speech:
81 million votes, America.? pic.twitter.com/vlDL4VcnXE
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) April 29, 2021
Biden’s audience slumped nearly 44% below the TV viewership for Republican President Donald Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress in 2017. Trump’s remarks pulled in 47.7 million TV viewers on 11 networks.
In Wednesday’s speech, Democrat Biden proposed a sweeping new $1.8 trillion “American Families Plan” and pleaded with Republican lawmakers to work with him on divisive issues.
The Nielsen numbers reflect viewers who watched on 16 broadcast and cable networks that carried the speech live, including Walt Disney Co’s (DIS.N) ABC, Comcast Corp’s (CMCSA.O) NBC and MSNBC, ViacomCBS Inc’s (VIAC.O) CBS and the Fox (FOXA.O) broadcast network and Fox News Channel, and AT&T Inc’s (T.N) CNN.
The figures include people who watched via traditional television as well as some who streamed the speech via internet-connected TVs, but they do not capture all online viewership.
Television audiences for live events have fallen sharply in the past year as audiences have gravitated to on-demand streaming services.
Sources: 100 PERCENT FED UP, DAILY TRUTH REPORTER, REUTERS
