President Joe Biden‘s Oval Office address on Thursday night drew an estimated 20.3 million people across 10 networks.
The 15-minute speech, calling for U.S. support for international crises in Israel and Ukraine, compared to the 27.3 million who watched his State of the Union address in February, which was aired on 16 networks.
According to Nielsen, about 65% watched the speech on broadcast networks, and 35% viewed it on cable networks. About 78% of the audience was 55 and older, 16% was 35-54 and 4% was 18-34.
Among major cable news networks, Fox News drew the largest audience for the primetime speech, with an estimated 3.25 million viewers, compared to 2.04 million for MSNBC and 1.31 million for CNN. In the 25-54 demo, Fox News averaged 431,000, compared to 332,000 for CNN and 229,000 for MSNBC. Fox News also topped the hour and primetime.
The speech was a prelude to a White House request Friday for a $100 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as for border security.
