The audience for President Obama’s final State of the Union was the lowest for the annual speech in 15 years.
An average of 31.3 million viewers watched as the president spoke for an hour about optimism, change, and the future of the country Tuesday night, according to Nielsen data.
This does not include those who watched via streaming or online
The speech’s viewership, which was a total average of the 13 networks that aired the event, was drastically down from the president’s inaugural State of the Union which brought in an average of 52.3 million in 2009.
It also trailed the final State of the Union of George W. Bush, which was watched by 37.5 million viewers in 2008 and was the lowest since Bill Clinton’s finale in 2000, a State of the Union that was watched by 31.4 million viewers.
The decline in Obama’s final SOTU follows the trend of viewership dipping over time for two term president as was the case over the presidencies of George W. Bush and Clinton.
In terms of social media, the speech generated 2.6 million tweets and spiked online at 10:10 p.m. ET, a minute after the president’s final words.
