Obama's Ratings Collapse
If President Obama were a television show, the network executives might start holding some serious meetings about how to turn his ratings around. Tuesday's State of the Union address was the third consecutive year Obama's overall audience has shrunk, even though the speech was carried on more networks than ever before.
37.569 million viewers tuned in to the speech, according to Nielsen's ratings, released late Wednesday. That translated into a 24.0 rating -- better than American Idol's show the following night, which 21.93 million people watched, but not as good as the NFC Championship game between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. 57.64 million people watched that game on Fox.
But Obama's numbers are getting worse. Fully 52.37 million watched his first address to a joint session of Congress, on Feb. 24, 2009 (technically not a State of the Union, but at a comparable point in the year). His first official State of the Union, on Jan. 27, 2010, was seen by 48 million people; his second, on Jan. 25, 2011, drew an audience of 42.79 million, according to Neilsen's ratings.
(Subscribers can check out our full list of SOTU Neilsen data, dating back to 1993, compiled by Hotline TV staff writer Chris Peleo-Lazar, here).
Attribute at least some of the dropoff to the proliferation of online venues where Americans could watch the speech. YouTube offered it live, and the White House's website streamed their own video. By this morning, the White House's version had been viewed more than 827,000 times on YouTube.
Presidential dropoff is nothing new. George W. Bush addressed more than 62 million Americans during his 2003 State of the Union, then never broke 50 million in any of his five other addresses (Just 37.515 million watched his final address, in 2008, smaller than Obama's audience).
Bill Clinton had a great first address in 1993, when 66.9 million people tuned in, but he only broke through the 50-million mark one other time, at the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
Only four networks -- NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox -- carried Clinton's first three speeches. Nowadays, viewers have 14 channels to choose from, ranging from the four broadcast outlets to three news networks, two business news networks and three Spanish-language stations.
But fewer viewers spread over more stations only means a smaller audience for each station. Obama should try something new for his next joint address if he wins another term this fall. Might we suggest avoiding a House singing competition, for all our sakes?
Hat tip, again, to Chris Peleo-Lazar for contributing.
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