On Wednesday, January 27, 2010 President Barack Obama’s first State of the Union address was carried live from 9:00PM to approximately 10:20PM on 11 networks. The sum of average audience for those networks was 48,009,595 viewers. The networks carrying the address were ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, TEL, UNI, CNN, BET, CNBC, FOXNC, and MSNBC.
| TV Ratings For President Obama’s State of the Union Speech | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadcast | Date | Networks | # of Households | Average Viewership P2+ |
| State of the Union | 1/27/10 | Various (11) | 34,182,725 | 48,009,595 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company |
Viewership to President Obama’s first State of the Union was down 7% from President Bush’s first official State of the Union address on January 29, 2002, but up 5% from President Clinton’s first official address on January 25, 1994:
| TV Ratings For President Obama’s State of the Union Speech | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broadcast | Date | Networks | # of Households | Average Viewership P2+ |
| G.W. Bush – State of the Union | 1/29/02 | Various (8) | 35,547,000 | 51,773,000 |
| Clinton – State of the Union | 1/25/94 | Various (4) | 31,000,000 | 45,800,000 |
| Source: The Nielsen Company |
- Download a historical look at ratings for State of the Union Addresses.
Newsworthy Buzz
The President’s speech was among the most widely discussed topics so far in 2010, rising over the last few days, but still eclipsed by the immense social media and news activity surrounding the earthquake in Haiti. Big media stories such as the Apple iPad announcement (the same day as the State of the Union) and the recent Jay Leno/Conan O’Brien late night shakeup also drew notable buzz.
