Not-so-hot tune-in
for State of the Union
Obama's speech before Congress averages 37.75 million total viewers
By Toni Fitzgerald
Jan 26, 2012
Even in a pivotal election year President Barack Obama couldn't muster many viewers for his State of the Union address.
The president delivered the second-least-watched SOTU since 2000 on Tuesday night, well down from his three earlier addresses.
The speech averaged 37.75 million total viewers across 14 networks, according to Nielsen, though three of those channels aired the speech on a tape delay (Univision, Telefutura and Telemundo).
That was down 12 percent from last year, when Obama drew 42.79 million viewers.
It was down 10.25 million from the 48 million who tuned in to Obama's 2010 address, and well below the 52.3 million who watched his speech to Congress in 2009.
It was the lowest tune-in since George W. Bush's final SOTU in 2008, which averaged 37.5 million.
And it was the second-lowest since 2000, when Bill Clinton's last SOTU averaged 31.49 million.
The speech aired live on ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox Business Network, Fox News Channel, Galavision, MSNBC and Mun2.
The lower tune-in could be read in many ways. It could be that people didn't want to watch what amounts to a stump speech in this election year.
It could be that the SOTU lacks the reality show-like drama of the recent Republican presidential debates, which have drawn strong numbers on cable.
Or it simply might be that people are turning elsewhere for information on the SOTU. Several sites now stream the speech live online, including the White House.
The SOTU was also a huge topic on social media, and many media outlets live-tweeted or live-blogged the speech, making tuning into the TV version unnecessary.
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