President Joe Biden’s address to Congress on Wednesday night attracted an estimated 11.6 million viewers on the four main U.S. broadcast television networks, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings data cited by Deadline Hollywood.
The early numbers do not include people who watched on cable news networks but indicate a fall in the TV audience compared to President Donald Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress in 2017, which attracted a final tally of 48 million TV viewers.
The Biden ratings number reflects the TV audience on Walt Disney Co’s ABC, Comcast Corp’s NBC, ViacomCBS Inc’s CBS and Fox. Viewership numbers from additional networks are expected later on Thursday.
In the speech, Democrat Biden proposed a sweeping new $1.8 trillion “American Families Plan” and pleaded with Republican lawmakers to work with him on divisive issues.
Television audiences for live events have fallen sharply in the past year.
(Reporting by Jill SerjeantEditing by Chris Reese and Bill Berkrot)