No, really, nobody watched it. Even Members of Congress were blindfolded, earplugged, and facing the rear of the House chamber. Either that, or they were asleep. And television viewers tuned in Charles In Charge marathons instead.
Okay, it wasn't quite THAT bad. But it was the lowest rated SOTU show in a decade and a half:
Viewership of the State of the Union address continues to wane, with early numbers suggesting perhaps the lowest tune-in for the annual event in 15 years.
Nielsen won’t issue cume numbers until later Wednesday or Thursday, but Fox News (3.471 million), CNN (2.557 million) and MSNBC (1.995 million) combined to draw a little over 8 million viewers from 9 to 10:15 p.m. ET, according to preliminary estimates. This is down from 9.1 million last year and 10.35 million in 2013.
CNN was the only one of of the three networks to rise vs. last year, bouncing back from what turned out to be its smallest SOTU tune-in in nine years.
In adults 25-54, CNN led the way with 1.021 million during the address — up a big 40% from last year. It was followed by Fox News (834,168), which had its smallest demo audience since 2000, and MSNBC (473,460), which had its smallest in eight years.
For the 9-11 p.m. ET period, which includes post-address coverage, Fox News drew 3.485 million viewers and 827,819 in the demo, while CNN averaged 2.375 million and a first-place 982,428 in the demo. MSNBC drew about 2 million overall, including about 494,000 in the demo.
The reason why is not difficult to fathom: We've all heard it before. All the same tired catch-phrases - "no red America, no blue America, just America," "We are our brother's keeper" - the same Big Government laundry list, the same "let us work together/screw you, Republicans" hypocrisy, the same hectoring and lecturing. Conservatives never did tune in other than those that had a professional obligation to do so. Independents have long since gotten bored with it. And even libs have lost interest because O has turned out to not be "the right socialist" after all. Fifteen years ago was Bill Clinton's final SOTU show, but at least he could perform and ad lib. The One has one act, and the hype of it wore off years ago. He's only gotten this far with it because of his success in demonizing the GOP, which is most of what his aforementioned Big Government laundry list was all about ("Force Congress to say 'no'", "do-nothing-I-want Congress," etc.). If they don't take the bait and instead ignore him and proceed with their own 2016 table-setting, the imperial monarch will become his worst nightmare: irrelevant. Which will make his coup de tat that much more imperative.
That would certainly increasing ratings for next year, wouldn't it? Even if he didn't officially order it.
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