President Trump’s third State of the Union address had a significantly smaller television audience than the year prior.
Trump’s Tuesday night address to both chambers of Congress, and the subsequent Democratic response, averaged slightly more than 15 million viewers on ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC, the Hollywood Reporter reported Wednesday. That number is down approximately 25% from the comparable figure from Trump’s 2019 address, which had an average of slightly less than 22 million viewers.
CBS and NBC led the way with more than 4 million viewers during the State of the Union. Fox and ABC came in slightly lower than the other two networks, with both near 3.5 million viewers.
The president’s address came during his impeachment trial in the Senate after the House passed impeachment charges last year after being accused of withholding congressionally-approved aid from Ukraine in order to secure investigations into 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
