President Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address drew more than 32 million viewers, an increase of roughly 5 million viewers compared to last year’s speech, according to Nielsen ratings released on Friday.
The address, which aired on 14 television networks, attracted an estimated 32.2 million total viewers. This represents an 18% increase from last year’s viewership of 27.3 million and makes it the second most-watched State of the Union of Biden’s presidency, behind his 2022 address, which was watched by 38 million people.
The majority of viewers, 74%, were aged 55 and older, while only 5% were in the coveted 18-34 age demographic. More than half of viewers, 56%, watched the address on broadcast networks such as CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX, while 44% tuned in on cable networks.
Among the broadcast networks, Fox News had the largest share of viewers with 5.84 million, followed by ABC with 5.24 million, NBC with 4.47 million, CBS with 4.09 million, MSNBC with 4.43 million, CNN with 2.63 million, and the Fox broadcast network with 1.77 million viewers.
Despite the increase in viewership for this year’s address, Biden’s speeches have averaged about 31.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s data, which is significantly lower than former President Donald Trump’s average audience of 44.7 million and former President Barack Obama’s average of 38.3 million.
The president’s address was criticized by Republicans for being hyper-partisan, and GOP lawmakers heckled Biden throughout his speech.
Biden’s remarks included criticisms of Trump, a botched reference to a victim allegedly killed by an undocumented migrant, and a push for the Senate to pass a border security bill that includes aid to Ukraine and Israel.
