‘s Oval Office address on Thursday evening attracted a substantial audience.
Across six broadcast networks and the three largest cable news channels, the address – which focused on the ongoing assistance to Israel and Ukraine – had an average of over 22 million viewers (22.12 million). The broadcast networks delayed their regular primetime schedules by about 20 minutes to air the address.
More from The Hollywood Reporter
ABC had the largest share of the total audience with 4.65 million viewers, followed by NBC (3.57 million) and CBS (3.46 million). Fox News led among cable channels with 3.35 million viewers in preliminary ratings, followed by MSNBC (2.11 million), the Fox broadcast network (1.45 million), and CNN (1.4 million). Univision attracted 1.27 million viewers for the address, while Telemundo had 858,000.
The official figure from Nielsen included 20.33 million viewers across 10 outlets: the four major English-language broadcast networks, the three main cable news channels, as well as CNBC, Fox Business, and NewsNation. The figure does not include the 2.13 million viewers on Univision and Telemundo.
In his address, Biden outlined a foreign aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine that he plans to send to Congress. “I know these conflicts may seem distant, and it’s natural to ask: Why does this matter to America? Let me share with you why ensuring the success of Israel and Ukraine is crucial for America’s national security,” he stated. “History has taught us that when terrorists and dictators face no consequences for their actions, they continue to cause chaos, death, and destruction.”
Elsewhere on Thursday, Amazon’s Thursday Night Football recorded the highest single-outlet audience of the night with 9.79 million viewers, according to Nielsen. TBS and TruTV attracted 4.07 million viewers for game three of the National League Championship Series, while FS1 and Fox Deportes had 3.86 million viewers for game four of the American League series.
Oct. 20, 2 p.m. Updated with final ratings figures for Fox News, MSNBC, and CNN.
Oct. 20, 2:43 p.m. Updated with official Nielsen estimates.
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
