Donald Trumpâs State of the Union address drew around 28 million viewers across eight major news networks, according to preliminary data from Nielsen.
Per the early data from Trumpâs Tuesdayâs speech, Fox News topped all networks in total viewers, drawing 9.1 million. ABC News was the top broadcaster, with 5.1 million. Other networks included NBC News with 3.6 million, CBS News with 3.3 million, MS NOW with 2.4 million, CNN with 2.2 million, Fox Broadcasting with 2.1 million and Fox Business with 269,000.
Lowest-rating joint sessions of Congress: (*not a SOTU)
Note 2026 is the first year Nielsen uses Big Data + Panel, capturing viewers from analogue, STBs and connected TVs.
| Viewers (million) | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Biden 2021* | 26.9 |
| 2 | Biden 2023 | 27.3 |
| 3 | Obama 2016 | 31.33 |
| 4 | Clinton 2000 | 31.48 |
| 5 | Obama 2015 | 31.71 |
| 6 | Biden 2024 | 32.3 |
| 7 | Trump 2026 | 32.6 |
| ⌠| ||
| 10 | Trump 2020 | 37.17 |
The premiere episode of the evergreen reality series helped CBS to its most-watched Wednesday night in four years, since the finale episode of Season 42 on May 25, 2022.
The three-hour opener (yes, three hours) was the nightâs number one show in both total viewers and adults aged 25-54, averaging 5.06M viewers. It peaked with 6.18m viewers in its first half-hour but held on to at least 90% of its audience each subsequent half-hour, per Nielsen.
It was up 26% from its fall 2025 premiere in total viewers and up +19% from its spring 2025 premiere.
Scrubs premiered with two episodes on ABC Wednesday, with the revived series airing its first episodes since 2010. The debut episode pulled in 4.41 million viewers and a 0.66 rating in the 18-49 demographic; the latter is the best same-day mark for any network comedy in its regular time period so far this season (i.e., excluding post-NFL premieres for NBCâs The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins and Foxâs Animal Control). The second episode averaged 3.52 million viewers and a 0.55 rating among adults 18-49. ABC reran the two episodes in the 10 p.m. hour, where they averaged 1.32 million viewers.
Cable news on day 1 of the war.
Fox News had best Saturday since April 2003 and trounced CNN+MS NOW in total and 25-54.
Network news specials: NBC 2.54m (8pm), CBS 1.52m (10pm). ABC did not produce one that night due to NBA.
⌠numbers hit a four-year-low in the US, where the show reached 17.9 million viewers on ABC and Hulu, down about 9% from last yearâs 19.7 million.
5.22 million viewers, most since penultimate episode of season 45.
1st Quarter 2026
For the 6th straight year, ABC Newsâ âWorld News Tonight with David Muirâ won the 1st quarter in Total Viewers (8.729 million), Adults 25-54 (1.094 million) and Adults 18-49(799,000), based on Most Current Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings from Nielsen Media Research. In addition, âWorld News Tonightâ has won in overall viewers and in the key Adult news demos for the 24th consecutive quarter and has stood as the most-watched evening newscast for the 36th quarter in a row â since 2Q20 and 2Q17, respectively.
DeVauxâs story plus other firsts that were poised to be achieved by jockeys, trainers and horses at this yearâs derby drove the live audience on Saturday evening to a record average of 19.6 million across NBC and streamer Peacock.
The live audience peaked at 24.4 Million Viewers on both platforms amid the startling come-from-behind win by a neck secured by jockey Jose Ortiz on thoroughbred Golden Tempo.
The game peaked at 12 million in the last 15-minute interval (11.30-11.43pm ET) and had Average Minute Audience of 2.3 million.
TV-only audience was 6.9 million, most for any NBC Monday primetime program since The Voice on March 13, 2023.
This followed more great news for the Peacock Network.
Spurs-Thunder hit 22.2 million viewers at peak. NBC clinched the 9th of 10 most-watched NBA playoff games this year (alongside 17th of 25).
ESPN can only look on from the outside as they suffered another sweep. It has been pointed out that since they became one of NBAâs major broadcasters in 2002-03 season, there have only been five conference final sweeps. And ESPN was the broadcaster of them all.
