An estimated 27.3 million people watched President Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday — a 29% drop from the audience for last year’s speech and the fewest to view the event in at least 30 years, according to Nielsen Media Research. ​

The total number of viewers ​who tuned in Tuesday was off from the 38.2 million who watched the president’s speech in 2022 and substantially lower than the 46.7 million who viewed former President Donald Trump’s second State of the Union in 2019, the Nielsen data show.​

The only smaller audience since 1993 came in 2021, when 26.9 million people saw Biden deliver an address to a joint session of Congress, which was not considered a State of the Union because he had been in office for less than a year. 

By contrast, Trump’s first address to Congress in 2017 drew 47.7 million viewers.

Of those tuning in, 59% watched through the traditional broadcast networks and 41% viewed the coverage on cable networks.

Fox News Channel captured the largest audience — 4.69 million — Nielsen said, followed by ABC with 4.41 million, NBC with 3.78 million, CBS with 3.64 million, MSNBC with 3.55 million, CNN with 2.40 million and the Fox broadcast network with 1.66 million. 

The audience also skewed older — with 73% of viewers 55 and up, compared to 18% who were between the ages of 35 and 54, and 5% who were between 18 and 34.

Biden also drew substantially fewer viewers than other presidents’ second State of the Union addresses, as 42.7 million watched Barack Obama in 2011, 62.1 million viewed George W. Bush in 2003 and 42.2 million tuned in to Bill Clinton in 1995.

The president’s main competition for eyeballs was LeBron James, as the only non-political program to crack the top 10 cable telecasts Tuesday night was TNT’s NBA doubleheader — which included James passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the association’s all-time leading scorer.

TNT’s broadcast also won the night among the coveted 18-34 demographic, outdrawing all other network and cable programs.

Biden’s 72-minute speech on Tuesday began with a plea for unity but turned raucous when the president accused Republicans of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare, accusations that were met by shouts of “Liar” by lawmakers across the aisle.