Our President knows how to win!
And you might remember he knows a thing or two about winning the ratings too from a little show called the Apprentice.
And he scored a HUGE win last night according to both the TV ratings AND the polls of viewers.
Trump scored a knockout punch with both.
Spoiler alert: Trump defied all conventional wisdom and scored a massive and nearly-unprecedented 46.8 rating!
Even the networks had to acknowledge his success:
Here's the official breakdown, from Deadline:
Breaking the tradition of declining viewership that usually afflicts Presidents this deep into their terms, the embattled ex-Celebrity Apprentice host snared an audience of 46.8 million.
Airing on ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, PBS, CNN, CNNe, FOX Business, FOX News Channel and MSNBC in the 9 – 10 PM ET slot, the third longest SOTU in history topped Trump’s first official address to Congress in 2018 by over 1 million viewers.
In a number that will also be important to the 45th POTUS, the address before the now Democrats’ dominated House of Representatives, the Senate and invited guests also beat Barack Obama’s second SOTU of January 25, 2011 by over 9%. That speech by the 44th POTUS was shown on the 11 outlets of ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, Centric, CNBC, FOXNC, and MSNBC.
PREVIOUSLY: UPDATED with early Nielsen numbers: Donald Trump never mentioned the unprecedented government shutdown nor the Democrats’ newly installed majority in the House of Representatives in his second official State of the Union address Tuesday night, but it sure felt like he talked about everything else.
At 82 minutes and with POTUS’ red tie askew, the primetime speech also received some unexpected applause from unexpected areas when white-suited female Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rose for Trump’s comments about the growing role of women in the workforce and in Congress.
Almost as long as Bill Clinton’s 2000 SOTU and two minutes more than his own 2018 address, last night’s speech saw the former Celebrity Apprentice host hold pretty tight to the teleprompter like last year as he hailed the economy and insisted the state of the union is strong.
What was also strong was the audience at home for a President well known to be obsessed with ratings. Fox News Channel topped all networks covering the speech for a second year in a row, drawing 11.1 million viewers and 2.8 million in the key adults 25-54 news demo from 9-10:30 PM ET in early Nielsen numbers. That topped No. 2 NBC, which drew 7.1M viewers and 2.6 million in the demo. That outpaced fellow broadcast net CBS, which had been leading among the Big 4 in the early metered markets.
Fox News led its cable rivals in primetime (8-11 PM ET) too, with 8.5M viewers and 2.02M adults 25-54; MSNBC was a distant second in viewers, while CNN was second in the demo. During the 9-10:30 time slot, MSNBC delivered 3.8M viewers and 798,000 in the demo, and CNN 3.4M and 1.2 million in the demo.
And from The Hill:
President Trump's second State of the Union address scored big ratings on Tuesday night, with the audience share increasing by more than 10 percent over last year's speech, according to early broadcast TV numbers from Nielsen.
The four major broadcast outlets — CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox — combined for a 16.3 overnight rating during the address Tuesday night, which could result in total viewership of approximately 49 million when final numbers, to include the cable news networks and other outlets, are in later Wednesday.
That would make Trump's speech the biggest one based on TV ratings out of any of the major speeches he has delivered since taking office.
The rating for Trump's Tuesday night address is better than his first State of the Union Address in January 2018, which delivered a 14.8 overnight rating, or 45.6 million viewers, across the same networks in 56 metered markets.
The 16.3 rating is also higher than Trump's first address in office, which wasn't officially a State of the Union but a speech to a joint session of Congress. That address, in January 2017, registered a 16.0 rating, or 48 million viewers.
Trump's address Tuesday was mostly well-received from those tuning in, according to surveys taken after the speech. Approximately three-quarters of respondents in polls released late Tuesday by CNN and CBS approved of the address.
When compared to President Obama's second State of the Union address in 2011, Trump's 48 million tops the 44th president's audience of 42.8 million viewers.
The raucous speech Tuesday night included plenty of political theatrics, with the president at times targeting Democrats in the address while also emphasizing unity.
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