Here's how many people watched Biden speech Dems & media called the 'GREATEST SOTU EVER!'

After President Biden’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night, the New York Post fact-checkers almost needed to be hospitalized for exhaustion after examining a speech that “set new records for dishonesty.”

However, that doesn’t mean Biden’s speech wasn’t still a hit with Democrats and many in the media (as always, pardon the redundancy):

CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "I have heard President Biden going back to his 36 years in the U.S. Senate…I've gotten to know him a bit. I think this was the best speech I have ever heard him deliver. He was passionate, it was extremely well-written…a powerful message" #SOTU pic.twitter.com/1tgVesn6Y4

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 8, 2023

Possibly the single best moment of any State of the Union ever. Absolutely masterful. pic.twitter.com/AFoeY73NzS

— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) February 8, 2023

“President Biden wisely skipped over the balloon in his exceptionally strong State of the Union address — the best speech of his presidency,” @NickKristof writes. https://t.co/pQUQ8nPmAr

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) February 9, 2023

"Look, this was a highly unusual State of the Union address. But this is one of the best speeches that Joe Biden has delivered as president."@jonkarl and @rachelvscott share the biggest takeaways and reactions from the #SOTU. https://t.co/QKpLOQxF2l pic.twitter.com/yNIPXcwFt9

— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 8, 2023

However, it appears that the excitement over the speech wasn’t exactly shared by all Americans. Biden’s SOTU viewership was the second lowest in at least 30 years:

This is a paltry number. Biden lost more than 35% of his 2022 State of the Union viewership for his second address. Context: Trump's 2nd SOTU drew 46.8M viewers, or twice as many in 2019. Fox News led all networks — broadcast/cable– last night with 4.6M. https://t.co/tk4RHTDuB4

— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) February 9, 2023

President Biden draws second smallest State of the Union audience in at least 30 years. https://t.co/EHkH3ECqoy

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 9, 2023

From NBC News:

An estimated 27.3 million people watched President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on television, the second smallest audience for the annual event in at least 30 years, the Nielsen company said on Wednesday.

It was also down nearly 28% from the 38.2 million people who saw Biden’s address in 2022.

The only smaller audience since 1993 was the 26.9 million who watched Biden’s address to Congress in 2021 — not officially a State of the Union speech, since he had just taken office a few months earlier. That speech was delivered on the unusually late date of April 28.

It certainly appears that regular Americans weren’t nearly as excited to watch Biden’s speech as Dems and the media.

GREATEST SOTU EVER!

"Biden’s second SOTU averaged 24.17 million viewers…would make it among the least watched State of the Union addresses (or presidential addresses to Congress for incoming executives) of the past 30 years." https://t.co/hhLkv2Qi6T via @thr

— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) February 9, 2023

Here’s a comparison of the viewership of Trump and Biden State of the Union speeches:

Nielsen: State of Union TV Ratings

President Trump:
2017 — 48 Million
2018 — 45.6 Million
2019 — 46.8 Million
2020 — 37.2 Million

President Biden:
2022 – 38 Million
2023 – 27.3 Million (the lowest audience in 30 years according to Nielsen)https://t.co/HAEvTPQzcd pic.twitter.com/uVOKDVp3R0

— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) February 9, 2023