Fox News leads State of the Union cable ratings as rivals fall
Fox News was again the top-rated cable news network during live coverage of President Obama’s State of the Union address, as its viewership Tuesday night increased from last year and rivals CNN and MSNBC fell.
Fox News’ coverage of the President’s speech, which started at 9:14 p.m. ET and lasted more than an hour, drew an average of 4.7 million viewers, more than CNN and MSNBC combined, according to Nielsen.
Viewership for Fox News increased 28% from last year’s State of the Union address and also rose in the key 25-54 age group to 1.2 million (up 25%).
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CNN brought in roughly 2.1 million people overall, down 43% from last year when it nearly matched Fox News. In 2013, CNN’s State of the Union viewership was boosted by breaking news coverage of the manhunt for Christopher Dorner in California before and after the address.
This year, CNN fell below MSNBC in total viewership. MSNBC dropped 24% year-over-year to 2.3 million. CNN still had a slight edge over MSNBC in the key demographic (762,000 vs. 752,000).
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Fox broadcast network will air a pregame interview with Obama conducted by Bill O’Reilly. However, CNN announced Tuesday anchor Jake Tapper will have the first post-State of the Union sit-down with Obama, airing at 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. ET on Friday.
[UPDATE: This post has been updated to reflect additional information about CNN ratings.]
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