Trump Address TV Ratings

[TheBigA]

The president's address to congress drew about 36 million viewers across 15 networks. Fox News had the most viewers with 10 million. Comparatively, the speech drew more viewers than any of the Biden speeches, but fewer than the first Trump admin. The Times says over 71% of the viewers were 55+. No surprise. Probably mostly men too.

More Than 36 Million Watched Trump’s Address to Congress on Live TV

The annual presidential speech is one of the last remaining mass-audience media moments available to a national politician.

www.nytimes.com

 

[nomadcowatbk]

does that include streaming?

 

[Don CT]

does that include streaming?

Only if you took your phone in with you.

 

[TheBigA]

does that include streaming?

Depends on what you're talking about. These are Nielsen numbers, so anything encoded with Nielsen. The article has a disclaimer.

Nielsen ratings mostly measure traditional television viewers, leaving out millions of Americans who often follow major news events across a plethora of news websites and some other digital platforms. While Mr. Trump’s speech clocked in at record-breaking length, many voters were likely to consume shorter clips of isolated moments circulated on social media and cable news.

 

[Don CT]

Well I wasn't watching.

 

[TheBigA]

Because the speech was so long, he lost a lot of viewers:

Trump Loses Millions of Viewers With Longest-Ever Speech to Congress

The Tuesday night speech was the lowest-rated address to a joint session of Congress that Trump has given so far.

www.thedailybeast.com

Viewership peaked roughly 45 minutes into his speech, between 9:45 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET, with 37.8 million tuning in. The majority of viewers were aged 55 and older, while viewership was lowest in the 18-34 age group at just 5.7 percent.

 

[PTBoardOp93]

I remain fascinated by Pres. Trump's preference for extremely long speeches. He set a record for longest congressional address in the television era last night. He also set a record for longest convention acceptance speech (in the TV era) in 2024 in Milwaukee.

Last night, Trump spoke for 99 minutes, which was 11 minutes longer than Bill Clinton's previous record from his final year in office. Trump spoke twice as long as the longest speech to Congress given by Ronald Reagan.

I certainly understand listeners not wanting to listen to Mr. Trump for 99 minutes. I personally find his meandering style difficult (sometimes exhausting) to follow.

 

[TheBigA]

I remain fascinated by Pres. Trump's preference for extremely long speeches.

I'm sure a lot of it was adlib. The longer he spoke, they later into the night he pushed the dem response.

 

[Don CT]

I'm sure a lot of it was adlib. The longer he spoke, they later into the night he pushed the dem response.

Most of Trumps speeches are adlibbed. He might have a script but that doesn’t last long.

 

[bigdonho]

How many of those watching were watching just to see how bad a train-wreck it turned in to. (Sort of like watching NASCAR for the crashes.) After about 45 minutes, I just couldn't take it any more and tuned out. It was the same as stump speeches from his campaigns. Sort of like watching a movie you had seen two or three times (or forty-five or fifty times) before.

 

[vchimpanzee]

How many of those watching were watching just to see how bad a train-wreck it turned in to.

That would be me. I recorded it and fast-forwarded through applause, which meant I missed whatever he said right after applause, but I got the general idea. Having recorded it, I took several nights to see it all.

I also lost a few minutes when the DVR quit working for some reason while i was watching something else.

 

[Weiserguy]

That would be me. I recorded it and fast-forwarded through applause, which meant I missed whatever he said right after applause, but I got the general idea. Having recorded it, I took several nights to see it all.

I also lost a few minutes when the DVR quit working for some reason while i was watching something else.

Undoubtedly Youtube has the entire speech. Also C-SPAN and PBS Newshour. You can stream the entire thing from the beginning, or catch any part you think you missed. You are only limited by the limits of your own endurance and masochism.

 

[CTListener]

Undoubtedly Youtube has the entire speech. Also C-SPAN and PBS Newshour. You can stream the entire thing from the beginning, or catch any part you think you missed. You are only limited by the limits of your own endurance and masochism.

If there were a drinking game based on how many times he says "perhaps," "maybe" and "frankly" in his speeches, no Republican in America would have a functioning liver by now.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Undoubtedly Youtube has the entire speech. Also C-SPAN and PBS Newshour. You can stream the entire thing from the beginning, or catch any part you think you missed. You are only limited by the limits of your own endurance and masochism.

What I know is that the recording (from cable) stopped at 10:20 Eastern and the TiVo resumed recording at 10:23. I have multiple TiVos and the others should have saved content, but apparently the only channels that got saved had a poor signal from an antenna. When I tried starting a recording in each case, it started it the time I started in both cases and did not include content that had been saved. The good news is both recordings had a perfect signal from an antenna.

 

[JJSPC]

How many of those watching were watching just to see how bad a train-wreck it turned in to. (Sort of like watching NASCAR for the crashes.) After about 45 minutes, I just couldn't take it any more and tuned out. It was the same as stump speeches from his campaigns. Sort of like watching a movie you had seen two or three times (or forty-five or fifty times) before.

But yet, even the CBS and CNN polls showed a majority of people reacted to the President's speech as favorable. What's interesting is in this era of streaming, satellite and cable, how much longer will all the major over the air networks still air things like this? I guess we'll see as time goes on.

 

[Megatron]

I don't watch pep-rallies that is what the SOTU is no matter who the president is plus it's boring just like most of the politicians doing speeches.

 

[davideduardo]

How many of those watching were watching just to see how bad a train-wreck it turned in to. (Sort of like watching NASCAR for the crashes.) After about 45 minutes, I just couldn't take it any more and tuned out. It was the same as stump speeches from his campaigns. Sort of like watching a movie you had seen two or three times (or forty-five or fifty times) before.

But for the news based TV operations, whether Red or Blue, this is their bread and butter... er, no, actually their catered banquet! Not only do they get audience for the speech, but they have at least the next 24 to 36 hours of topics and reactions for their regular panels and shows.

Those who hate Trump likely watched to see what other idiocy he presented. Those who like him were like rock fans at a star-studed concert. So both won, but mostly from the discussion topics after the speech.

I watched because I find Trump fascinating. You can see he has a script, but he adds improvisation and commentary (like the "Pocohantas" comment that was all news commentators' caviar) and often makes factually inaccurate statements in those moments while seeming to exude confidence. The only other politician I have seen do this type of semi-improvised speaking this way is Milei in Argentina (where he has totally saved and turned around the world's worse economy). Bolsonaro in Brazil did some of this, and he got enormous press and broadcast coverage and generated all kinds of judicial warfare from the opposition, too.

Whether good politics and policy or not, the style I saw was engaging or enraging. In either case, it made for good news/talk radio commentary and, of course, spiked the cable news channels magnificently.