With all of the Big 4 running it live, the very last State of the Union address of Barack Obama’s presidency saw jokes and barbs about those running to succeed him, a call to cure cancer, pleas to pass the big Pacific Rim trade deal and Paul Ryan’s debut in the Speaker’s chair over POTUS’ shoulder. Overall, the President also offered an optimistic assessment of the nation in his just over an hour speech but the incumbent conceded he hadn’t been able to overcome the harsh bipartisan battles that have characterized his term in office.
If early numbers are anything to go by, Obama wasn’t able to get more eyeballs to watch his speech either. With an average audience of 18.1 million watching the 9 – 10 PM coverage on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC, Obama’s speech was down 8% from the early numbers of last year’s January 20 talk to Congress.
Heading into the twilight of his term in office that continues the POTUS downward viewership trend. Obama’s 2015 SOTU was down 7% from his 2014 speech in the early Big 4 audience averages – which was down from the year before. In the final viewership numbers, the 2015 speech ended up being a SOTU low for the President – which we could see as the case this year.
Among adults 18-49, early numbers have NBC’s coverage of the SOTU even with last year’s 1.5 but the other nets saw declines in the demo. ABC and CBS both drew a 1.0/3 – that’s down 9% and 23% respectively from 2015. With a 0.7/2, Fox saw its SOTU coverage saw the sharpest fall with a 30% drop. The cume demo rating of 4.2 is down 14% from 2015, an Obama low. Adjusted numbers and cable new numbers are expected later today and we’ll update then.
CBS and ABC ran repeats before the SOTU but NBC and Fox slipped in originals. Hollywood Game Night (1.2/4) was even with last week as were New Girl (1.4/4) and Grandfathered (1.0/3) – the latter having a mini-Full House reunion with Bob Saget showing up to join old pal John Stamos. The CW’s Madtv 20th Anniversary Reunion got an OK 0.6/2 while iZombie (0.5/2) was even with its last original from December.
Lousy numbers for a horrible Obama
18.1 million terrible, especially compared to the 25 million the Republican debate got. I guess that tells you something.
One cannot overcome bipartisan battles, when one is an instigator of them.
Agreed
Exactly! Obama and the democrats are partisan extremists, and our country has suffered because of it.
Extremists for the love of this country.
What “bipartisan battles” ? The Republicans have caved and given in on just about everything he, and the Democrats wanted! I can’t name so much as a single achievement they actually managed to keep this year!
Exactly, the GOP elites are completely in collusion with the Dems and Obama. The omnibus bill that Ryan and crew passed in the middle of the night two weeks ago funds every destructive and wasteful program that Obama will put forth in the next year.
Is it any wonder that it is looking like a landslide for Trump?
I feel we were duped in the last election by so called GOP’s and Conservatives because once they were sent to DC to actually stop Obama they joined him.
He looked broken, depressed and like he has given up…big change from 7 years ago!
The failure of his legacy is his sole responsibility … He has no one to blame but himself.
He won’t let that stop him from blaming others though.
Then we failed. Success would be his success at opening a vein the long way.
You can bet when Donald Trump is President next year, the ratings will be YOOOOOOGE!
And our country WILL BE GREAT AGAIN!
YOOOOOOOOOOOGE!
ah ya ya ya. Out o sight.
Trump will dominate LIKE A BOSS
watch this awful president speak? ain’t nobody got time for that.
What is there to watch? Obama hasn’t done anything he has said he would do for 7 years. Fool me twice shame on me…
You’re uninformed.
we were all watching “So you Think You Can Lie” on TV
didnt have time to watch..was to busy getting my Obama is gone in a year oarty started…what a pos
Obama is suffering the worst fate that could befall a politician.
No one is watching or listening to him anymore.
Of course his numbers are down. No one wants to spend their time listening to someone lie to them for an hour.
God bless America! There may actually be hope for a change!
You can only listen to I, I, me, me so many times before you get fed up with the delusional liar. People are finally catching on.
Why watch? It wasn’t a comedy, although it could have been extreme satire. It was not a mystery, as we all knew what he would say. It was not a romance, as all the love is gone.
It was not an action show, as there has been no action in 7 years. So, why would anyone watch?
Fox should have done a real-time fisking of the SOTU with a panel. Whenever Obama spoke a lie or a fantasy they would pause the speech and tear it apart with the panel. The only downside is that with all the lies uttered by BHO the panel would still be critiquing the speech into the following day.
The reason viewership is down is after Obama lied repeatedly to Americans over and over, they realize he cannot be trusted to be honest with us.
Voters will not listen to someone that they know lies. Only politician that lies more is Hillary Clinton.
They all lie.
TRUMP 2016!
Trump is driving the RINOs, the Dems, and all the other country haters and underminers NUTS! I look forward to seeing President Trump fixing this mess.
That’s a toss up between those two.
Battles? What battles????
Obama’s continuing drop in viewership is hardly a surprise, after all his policies are what has this nation in an uproar, and is the reason huge numbers of people will no longer abide the status quo. In our opinion many, many things MUST change as we will not tolerate another such leader. The GOPe is learning the hard way that THIS time their voters will not tolerate the type of candidate they usually give us! Democrats are leaving the party of Obama and flocking to Trump and Cruz. The nation is saying (as they did by their almost nil viewership of Obama last night) no more. Not from Democrats and not from the GOPe.
Obama didn’t put any effort into this speech. It was one of the worst speeches of his career and shows he has already checked out. He has been a polarizing and divisive President leading party obsessed with racial and gender chauvinism that scapegoats and finger points rather than deal with the realities of the problems our country faces.
Obama said h has hope for the future because of Americans but the reality is Obama holds America and most of its citizens in contempt.
Just words just speeches.
Obama leaving office is the first glimpse of hope this country’s had since 2009.
America has tuned Obama out for quite a while now.
Can’t believe people are still listening to this clueless man!
Hope and change America, hope and change….
There is only so much lying a citizen can take before turning off a chronic huckster.
It would one thing if the destruction to America and our way of life wasn’t intentional (ala jimmy carter foreign policy) but I believe marxist policies just don’t seem to groove with America way of life.
The whole thing was wasted on me. I watched a video of an old Gun Smoke program instead.