Donald Trump's First SOTU Address Audience Dwarfs Obama's Final One

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Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address drew an estimated 45.6 million total viewers across 12 channels, per Nielsen.

That’s up quite a bit from Barack Obama’s final SOTU (31.3 million viewers), but nowhere near the Trump predecessor’s first one (52.4 million) back in 2009. Obama’s second turn, with 48 million viewers, also out-performed last night’s total-viewer tally.

The recorded-history record still belongs to Bill Clinton, who addressed 66.9 million people back in 1993.

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With 11.5 million total viewers tuning in to Fox News Channel alone, Tuesday’s primetime event was the highest-rated State of the Union address in the history of cable news. Fox News was the top individual destination on all of television, while NBC edged CBS in terms of the over-the-air channels.

Here is how the three main cable news channels and Big 4 broadcast networks ranked:
Fox News Channel: 11.5 million total viewers
NBC: 7.1 million
CBS: 7 million
ABC: 5.4 million
Fox (Broadcast): 3.6 million
CNN: 3.1 million
MSNBC: 2.7 million

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And here is President Trump clapping for himself:

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The old adage says "good things come to those who wait" -- but does that apply to television? Well, people seem to like Fox's "9-1-1" and "Ellen's Game of Games," so, maybe?

TheWrap has ranked all seven of the new-in-2018 broadcast series by total viewers.

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TheWrap
Rank: 7
Show: "Black Lightning"
Net: The CW
Total Viewers: 2.305 million

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The CW
Rank: 6
Show: "The Four"
Net: Fox
Total Viewers: 3.749 million

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Fox
Rank: 5
Show: "L.A. to Vegas"
Net: Fox
Total Viewers: 3.755 million

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Fox
Rank: 4
Show: "Child Support"
Net: ABC
Total Viewers: 4.401 million

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ABC
Rank: 3
Show: "9-1-1"
Net: Fox
Total Viewers: 6.826 million

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Fox
Rank: 2
Show: "Ellen's Game of Games"
Net: NBC
Total Viewers: 7.234 million**

**Time slot premiere received 8.839 million total viewers.

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NBC
Rank: 1
Show: "The Resident"
Net: Fox
Total Viewers: 8.654 million*

*Special preview after NFC Championship Game. Time slot premiere got 4.699 million total viewers.

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Fox
"A.P. Bio" will next join this list, premiering Thursday at 9:30 p.m. on NBC. That one is a special preview as well -- we'll get the asterisk ready.

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NBC

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“Ellen’s Game of Games” and “The Resident” both earn big audiences — and an asterisk

The old adage says "good things come to those who wait" -- but does that apply to television? Well, people seem to like Fox's "9-1-1" and "Ellen's Game of Games," so, maybe?

TheWrap has ranked all seven of the new-in-2018 broadcast series by total viewers.

Also Read: ‘The Good Doctor’ vs ‘The Resident': The Tale of the (Surgical) Tape (Infographic)

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