33.3 Million Tune in to Watch Pres. Obama’s State of the Union Address

On Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014 President Barack Obama delivered his second State of the Union address of his second term in office. The address was carried live from 9:00 p.m. to 10:15 p.m. on 13 networks and tape-delayed on Univision. The sum of the average audience for those networks was 33,299,172 viewers with a combined household rating of 20.7. The networks carrying the address live were CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, Azteca, Fox Business, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Al Jazeera America, Galavision and Mun2.

In terms of the address’ social nature, 8.8 million people saw at least one of the 2.1 million tweets sent in the U.S. about the “State of The Union 2014,” according to Nielsen SocialGuide. Each person in the Twitter TV Unique Audience saw, on average, 29 tweets about the TV event. Twitter activity about the airing spiked at 9:47pm, with 32,918 Tweets sent following the president’s reference to “equal pay.”

State of the Union, Jan. 28, 2014

Networks	Combined Household Ratings	No. of Households	No. of Viewers (P2+)
CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, Azteca, Fox Business, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Al Jazeera America, Galavision, Mun2, UNI*	20.7	23,949,843	33,299,172
Source: Nielsen *Tape delay.

Below is a historical look at past State of the Union addresses.

Historical State of the Union Addresses

Date	Networks	Combined Household Rating	Combined No. of Households	Combined No. of Viewers	President
2/12/2013	FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Azteca, UNI, MFX, CNBC, CNN, Fox Business, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, Current, Centric, GALA	21.8	24,767,047	33,497,607	Obama
1/24/2012	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, TEL, TF, UNI, CNBC, CNN, FBN, FOXNC, GALA, MSNBC and MUN2	24	27,569,423	37,752,613	Obama
1/25/2011	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, TEL, UNI, CNN, Centric, CNBC, FOXNC, and MSNBC	26.6	30,871,688	42,789,947	Obama
1/27/2010	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, TEL, UNI, CNN, BET, CNBC, FOXNC, MSNBC	29.8	34,182,725	48,009,595	Obama
2/24/2009*	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNBC, CNN, FOXNC, MSNBC, TELEMUNDO, UNIVISION	32.5	37,185,000	52,373,000	Obama
1/28/2008	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, FOXNC, MSNBC, TELEMUNDO^, UNIVISION	24.7	27,702,000	37,515,000	G.W Bush
1/23/2007	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, FOXNC, MSNBC, TELEMUNDO, UNIVISION **	29.6	32,968,000	45,486,000	G.W. Bush
1/31/2006	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, FOXNC, MSNBC	26.9	29,578,000	41,699,000	G.W. Bush
	TELEMUNDO, AZTECA AMERICA, TELFUTURA, TELEMUNDO	8.4	950,000	1,480,000
2/2/2005	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, FOXNC, MSNBC	25.2	27,699,000	38,382,000	G. W. Bush
	TELEMUNDO, TELEFUTURA	6	660,000	1,050,000
1/20/2004	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, CNBC, FOXNC, MSNBC	28	30,286,000	43,411,000	G. W. Bush
1/28/2003	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, CNBC, FOXNC, MSNBC	38.8	41,447,000	62,061,000	G. W. Bush
1/29/2002	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, CNBC, FOXNC, MSNBC	33.6	35,547,000	51,773,000	G.W. Bush
2/27/2001*	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, FOXNC, MSNBC	27.6	28,201,000	39,793,000	G.W. Bush
1/27/2000	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, FOXNC, MSNBC	22.4	22,536,000	31,478,000	Clinton
1/19/1999	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, FOXNC, MSNBC	31	30,700,000	43,500,000	Clinton
1/27/1998	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN, CNBC, FOXNC, MSNBC	37.2	36,513,000	53,077,000	Clinton
2/4/1997	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN	28.4	27,600,000	41,100,000	Clinton
1/23/1996	ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, CNN	29.6	28,400,000	40,900,000	Clinton
1/24/1995	ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN	29.5	28,100,000	42,200,000	Clinton
1/25/1994	ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN	32.9	31,000,000	45,800,000	Clinton
2/17/1993*	ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN	44.3	41,200,000	66,900,000	Clinton
Source: Nielsen Notes: Beginning Dec. 25, 2006, estimates on this page include live viewing plus any time-shifted viewing within the same day (defined as 3AM-3AM). Feb. 17, 1993, Feb. 27, 2001 and Feb. 24, 2009 officially the “Address to the Joint Sessions of Congress.” ^Telemundo’s coverage was tape delayed, all other networks carried live.*OnJan. 23, 2007 the coverage of these networks goes beyond a common end time and includes the State Of The Union Address and commentary. This does not include the Democratic Response.