Obama State Of The Union 2010 Ratings: 48 Million Viewers, Fox Tops

LOS ANGELES — About 48 million viewers watched President Barack Obama's first State of the Union address on 11 networks, with Fox TV drawing the biggest share.

The Nielsen Co. said viewership for Wednesday's speech was 7 percent lower than for President George W. Bush's first such address in 2002 but 5 percent higher than for President Bill Clinton's inaugural State of the Union speech in 1994.

From 9-10 p.m. EST, more than 9.7 million people watched the hour-plus speech on Fox, with ABC drawing 7.6 million viewers, NBC 7.2 million and CBS 6.2 million, according to preliminary Nielsen figures Thursday. Those early numbers don't reflect West Coast viewership of the speech that aired at 5 p.m. PST.

Among the cable news networks, Fox News was the leader with 5.7 million, followed by CNN with 3.3 million and MSNBC with 2.4 million. The speech also was carried live on Telemundo, Univision, BET and CNBC.

Comments

[Grannysue]

01:42 PM on 01/31/2010

Fox Trolls sure didn't watch the President's Q & A with the GOPERS now did they, why because FAUX NEWS cut the largest portion,,,I guess it's tough watching your guys get their asses kicked.

[LonosCurse]

10:17 PM on 01/29/2010

Fox is proof that there is money to be made in appealing to America's inner racist.

[cordyc]

11:04 PM on 01/29/2010

Fox broadcast got good numbers because folks wanted to see American Idol.

Faux cable only got 11% of all viewers. So big deal.

[Mauiloa]

02:57 PM on 01/29/2010

Why do we love playing this ridiculous numbers game?

Of course all Republicans and Teabaggers will watch FOX! They believe that all other media is biased. Such is the shared sense of pseudo-reality among that bunch.

On network TV, Fox had 9.7 million viewers. The other three networks split the rational-thinking crowd, but combined they had well over twice the viewers Fox had.

For those who like their news from the cable news networks, the whack-a-doodle crowd that lives and dies by the Fox altered reality worldview tied the combined viewership of the other two newsies.

So out of 48 million viewers, Fox had 17.4 million, just a bit more than 1/3.

I -- for one -- am quite happy that 2 out of 3 viewers didn't buy into to whatever kind of despotic wingnuttery the Fox crowd is not-so-subtley trying to alarm us into.

[cordyc]

11:07 PM on 01/29/2010

I wouldn't lump the Fox broadcast in since most viewer were probably just not wanting to miss American Idol.

MSNBC comes in low since only "premium" subscribers get it on the cable.

[Mauiloa]

10:47 AM on 01/30/2010

Good observations.

[BOBINMO]

04:32 AM on 01/31/2010

Fanned.

[GirlOutWest]

01:32 PM on 01/29/2010

I'm really starting to doubt the veracity of the Nielsen ratings. Oddly, most of my friends and acquaintances are Republican and I think all but a couple of them avoided the SOTU. The ones that watched probably did just so they could yell at their televsion/computer screens.

[BOBINMO]

04:34 AM on 01/31/2010

That begs the qeustion...why wouldnt Republicans care about the State of the Union?

[Acebass]

12:20 PM on 01/29/2010

I wonder if TVs in bus stations bars and such count? I noticed while taking a bus trip on Greyhound, that each station had several TVs hanging on the wall and all were tuned to Fox. Anywhere I go that has Fox on the TV I always demand they change to CNN or MSNBC. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
Just saying that if all those TVs are turned to Fox does that queer the results.

[GTRich2004]

01:22 PM on 01/29/2010

no they don't. The only people counted are the Nielson households.

[BOBINMO]

04:35 AM on 01/31/2010

I went into a car dealership the other day and the TV actually had MSNBC on. I was shocked.

[ScottyBob]

11:52 AM on 01/29/2010

American Idol (which aired just before) is the reason FOX was tops.

[ScottyBob]

11:51 AM on 01/29/2010

American Idol (whiche aired just before) is the reason FOX was tops.

[PKMKII]

11:42 AM on 01/29/2010

I wouldn't read too much into this. I ended up watching the speech on Fox News simply because it had the best feed with the least amount of distracting on-screen graphics. Once the speech was over, though, I switched it to MSNBC.

[Fritzwood]

10:48 AM on 01/29/2010

So this is good news...80% of viewers watched the President on various outlets and 20% watched on Fox.....good news indeed.

[cordyc]

11:13 PM on 01/29/2010

Do the math 5.7 divided by 48 is only 11% watched on faux noise cable.

This is very consistent with faux usually getting about 10% if ALL news viewers on any given evening.

[LiberTLover]

10:11 AM on 01/29/2010

The truth is that more than two thirds of viewers chose NOT to watch Fox News (32.7 million - 68%) than did watch Fox (15.3 million - 32%). They can spin it any way they like but it doesn't change the facts or the math.

[beckpod1]

09:49 AM on 01/29/2010

Stats are padded when it comes to Fox...I know tons of people...none of them are stupid enough to watch anything on Fox!

[24hourrifle]

09:56 AM on 01/29/2010

i dont actually believe that stats are "padded"....its really fairly simple...

the majority of people who still get their news from the tv are white,middle aged/seniors,middle/upper class...also the exact same demographic for the GOP....also the same people who want a cons. version of their "news"...and so,they watch fnc....

whereas younger people,minorities,poor people are all less likely to get news from the tv.....and also more likely to be dems.

i just dont know people-other than members of my family,who are nearly all cons-who watch much tv at all,and especially not for their news.

[rmsobin]

09:48 AM on 01/29/2010

The speech, and how it was heard ? . . . . . .

I have been in numerous hotels / motels that the TV channels did not have MSNBC, but DID have Fox News. I assume most of those situations were because of owner or manager wishes. Thus, trapped in those places -- not much choice.

We recently took a cruise from Sydney to L.A. and for almost all of the trip, the TV on the ship only carried Fox News as a live show. For much of the cruise, CNN did not come in, and there was no MSNBC. What line? Princess. When I asked (several times) what had happened to the other channels -- Princerss said they had their staff working on the problem. Now we are talking of a 30 day trip and at least for 24 or 25 days, no ESPN, no CNN, etc.

After the President spoke, I switched to Fox New to see what their experts would say, because I had the feeling that all of those "fair and balanced Fox listeners" would also be exposed to those comments. Well . . . . four experts started right off with their take, and all four blasted the President. Not one good word was to be heard. So Fox News continues -- "THE WAR AGAINST OBAMA." The Network of NO, the Republican party's private network for all America and the world to listen to.

[rodneyhopper]

12:08 PM on 01/29/2010

Dish Network has Fox News in its "Family Package", its lowest priced, but no MSNBC.

Also, Sirius simulcasts Fox, but not MSNBC.

Fox had definitely been able to permeate more outlets than MSNBC. Perhaps this Comcast deal can shore that up a bit and provide some parity.

The thing is, nobody ever wants to talk about the fact that television/cable news is dying. I don't watch MSNBC or NBC News while it's on, but I catch clips of it on the internet. I simply don't have an hour (or the patience) in the evening to devote to the news when I came take in it small chunks throughout the day.

Right now, we're seeing a spike in fear among baby boomers (Fox's demo) and feel they only have one outlet that really gets them. This explains Fox's current spike in the ratings. Once the economy rightens and joblessness goes down, we'll see those numbers dwindle.

As the baby boomers make way for people who have never known life without the internet, so too will televison and cable news see its dominance in America slip.

[LiberTLover]

09:25 AM on 01/29/2010

And did anyone count all of the people who streamed it live and watched on the Internet like most young people did? That wasn't really possible when Bush gave his address.

[BCALM]

09:12 AM on 01/29/2010

so , the most trusted name in Broadcast and Cable news is FOX NEWS,,, 15.4 million on the two networks ... Hows that boycott working for you ....Hey , what happened to that Huffer watchdog group thing

[24hourrifle]

09:37 AM on 01/29/2010

as always,the cons. defense of fnc consists of "ratings...money....olbermann.....tingly leg.."

never anything to do w/ quality of journalism,or lack thereof.

also....the mere idea of wildly defending a "news" org. is unprecedented......is it because they're so "fair and balanced"?......ive just never seen a progressive carrying a sign proclaiming their allegiance to msnbc or ny times or any other "liberal media" outlet.....you would think we'd be interested in defending these media sources which are clearly "in the tank" for our cause.

[bar1ed]

08:53 AM on 01/29/2010

i wonder! do Fox Fans have a marching song?

[BOBINMO]

04:40 AM on 01/31/2010

Send in the clowns would be appropriate