FOX (Not FNC) Wins State Of The Union Ratings Last Night

The overnight ratings are in for Pres. Obama’s first State of the Union, and the broadcast networks combined for 30.2 million total viewers during the 9-10:30pm speech.

The winner for the night – surprisingly it was FOX, which surely benefited from its American Idol lead-in.

Shepard Smith anchored for FOX broadcast network, and he led the network competitors by a hefty margin. FOX averaged 9.74 million total viewers during the 9pm hour, compared to ABC with 7.64, NBC with 7.15 and CBS with 6.16.

Fox News regularly beats its cable news competitors for Pres. Obama speeches, but FOX doesn’t always even air the special events when it comes to Pres. Obama (although a State of the Union is different from a press conference).

Overall, the numbers are down about three million total viewers from Pres. Obama’s Not State of the Union last February. The cable news numbers will be in later this afternoon.

Here’s the full breakdown from TVByTheNumbers.com:

9:00 FOX State of the Union Address 3.6/10 9.74
ABC State of the Union Address 2.2/6 7.64
NBC State of the Union Address 1.8/5 7.15
CBS State of the Union Address 1.5/4 6.16
CW Life Unexpected (R) 0.6/2 1.43

10:00 FOX State of the Union Coverage 3.2/8 8.713
ABC State of the Union Coverage 2.1/6 7.18
NBC State of the Union Coverage 2.0/5 7.23
CBS State of the Union Coverage 1.6/4 6.10

10:30 FOX Analysis/Various 2.0/6 5.85
NBC Analysis/The Office (R) 1.3/4 4.41
ABC Analysis/Cougar Town (R) 1.1/3 4.09
CBS Analysis/Two and a Half Men (R) 1.0/3 4.23

Update: ABC’s actual ratings were 8.19 million for the speech, start-to-finish. More are coming…

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