Ratings Plunge For Trump’s State Of The Union Telecast

Ratings Plunge For Trump’s State Of The Union Telecast

The preliminary overnight ratings for Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union speech show a serious decline from his speech last year.

“President Trump’s State of the Union address is on course for a smaller viewership than in the previous three years of his presidency,” Variety reported.

A total of 15.9 million viewers watched Trump across the four major broadcast networks, a decline of 21 percent from the ratings he earned on those networks in 2019.

Trump saw viewers tune out and change the channels on several of the networks who saw their ratings lowered from the 8 p.m. hour as the speech began at 9 p.m.

On NBC, Trump’s address got over 600,000 fewer viewers than Ellen’s Game of Games, which aired the hour prior on the station. A repeat of NCIS on CBS that aired just before the State of the Union had more viewers than Trump by nearly 1.4 million, and over 450,000 more people watched a rerun of The Conners on ABC at 8 p.m. than tuned in for Trump at 9 p.m.

Trump did get a slight increase in ratings from Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back, which aired the hour before his address on Fox News.

Trump was once the star of NBC’s The Apprentice and has frequently cited television ratings as an indication of political strength and cultural relevance.

Viewers who turned off the State of the Union address missed out on Trump lying about immigrants, giving the Medal of Freedom to a racist, lying about protecting preexisting conditions and manufacturing jobs, and misleading on a host of other issues.

When ratings across all networks were tabulated, Trump hit his highest ratings for a State of the Union in 2019 with 46.8 million. He has yet to best President Barack Obama’s highest ratings, when over 48 million tuned in for his address 2019.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Advertising

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

Fox News Deceives Viewers About Its Own Reporter's Question To Biden (VIDEO)

Lucas Tomlinson

On the November 26 edition of Fox News Sunday, Fox News correspondent Lucas Tomlinson declared, “The oldest president in U.S. history also continues to face questions about his age, even here in Nantucket,” followed by video of President Joe Biden reacting to a yelled question — “Mr. President, are you too old to be running for reelection?” — which was clearly Tomlinson’s own voice. In reporting the story to his Fox audience, however, Tomlinson did not make it clear that he was the one who asked the question.

Keep reading...Show less
Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Many liberal and progressive pundits have been predicting a "brain drain" from red states — skillful, college-educated doctors, university professors and teachers leaving because of oppressive MAGA policies. OB-GYNs are worried about draconian anti-abortion laws; teachers and librarians are under attack from the far-right Moms for Liberty.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}