Obama TV Audiences Rank Behind Bush, Clinton: BGOV Barometer
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President Barack Obama, who delivers his third State of the Union address tomorrow, has so far failed to garner TV audiences to match the most-watched addresses by George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
The BGOV Barometer shows live TV viewership for Obama’s annual address to Congress has declined in each of the past two years, according to Nielsen data. Bush had 62.1 million viewers for his 2003 State of the Union speech just prior to the Iraq War, more than Obama’s 52.4 million for his first remarks to Congress in 2009. Clinton in 1993 drew 66.9 million viewers, the biggest audience for the annual address in the last two decades.