The Lead

As Barrett Media reported on Thursday, an average of 36.6 million people tuned into the coverage of the address to a Joint Session of Congress by President Donald Trump. Fox News led the way on Tuesday night.

From 9:15-11 PM ET, Fox News averaged 10.7 million viewers. That figure represents a new high-water mark for a cable news network during an address to a joint session of Congress.

In that timeframe, Fox News earned 74% of the overall cable news audience and 70% of the Adults 25-54 demographic, with 1.9 million viewers from that sector tuning in.

Elsewhere on cable news, CNN averaged 1,929,000 total viewers, with MSNBC not far behind at 1,924,000. In the key demographic, however, CNN earned 585,000 viewers compared to MSNBC’s 237,000.

During the response from the Democratic Party, Fox News also led the ratings with 5.9 million viewers and nearly 1 million in the key demo.

Fox Business Network earned 245,000 total viewers, with 47,000 coming from the key demographic.

Ratings information for NewsNation, Newsmax, and CNBC was not made readily available.

Of the 2025 audience, 70.7% were from the 55+ demographic, with just under 26 million tuning into the address from President Donald Trump. 20.5% were in the Adults 35-54 demographic, with 7.5 million viewers coming from that sector. Only 5.7% of viewers — 2.1 million — were from the 18-34 demographic.

The average of 36.6 million viewers is down from the previous similar speeches Trump gave during his first term in office. The speeches from 2017 to 2020 averaged 44.3 million viewers, peaking at 47 million in 2017, which was also not technically a State of the Union Address put rather an Address to a Joint Session of Congress.

ABC News Leads Network News Category During Trump Speech

On the network news side, ABC News held a strong advantage over CBS News, NBC News, and the FOX broadcast network during Tuesday’s speech.

In total, 6.3 million viewers watched the coverage on ABC News. That topped CBS News, which just surpassed 4 million viewers. NBC News was right behind at 3.9 million viewers. The FOX broadcast network saw an average audience of 2.7 million.

In the key Adults 25-54 demographic, ABC News led that sector as well, with 1.7 million viewers. NBC News actually surpassed CBS News in the category, with 1,085,000 viewers compared to 1,065,000.

The FOX broadcast network featured 892,000 viewers in the key demo.

Ratings information for PBS News was not made readily available.

Overall viewership peaked between 9:45-10 PM ET with 38 million viewers.

CBS News Continues Slide in Nightly Newscast Ratings

CBS News has seen its ratings dip since Norah O’Donnell exited the CBS Evening News anchor chair.

During the final three weeks of her tenure, the nightly newscast averaged 5.1 million viewers. It had dipped slightly in the first two weeks after her departure. Unfortunately for the network, that slide has continued.

During the week of February 24th, the CBS Evening News averaged 4.3 million total viewers. That paled in comparison to NBC Nightly News (6.4 million) and ABC World News Tonight (7.9 million). The 4.3 million total viewership tally is a nearly 7% decline from the previous week.

The CBS News program unveiled a new format as new anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois took over the show to feature more long-form storytelling and analysis. However, as the ratings continued to dip, the network reversed course and went back to its previous format.

In the Adults 25-54 demographic, CBS News averaged 643,000 viewers. That was well behind ABC News (1.1 million) and NBC News (940,000). However, it was a slight uptick in that sector after averaging an audience of 638,000 viewers the previous week.

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