President Trump claimed his State of the Union the amount of people who watched him was “the highest number in history.”
We’ve heard it before, President Trump’s inauguration in 2017 was the biggest crowd ever, according to him.
Well now, the president is tweeting the TV audience for his State of the Union address, Tuesday, was the largest in history.
Thank you for all of the nice compliments and reviews on the State of the Union speech. 45.6 million people watched, the highest number in history. @FoxNews beat every other Network, for the first time ever, with 11.7 million people tuning in. Delivered from the heart!
But is that really true? We set out to VERIFY the facts.
Nielsen ratings keep count of all the eyeballs on TV shows. It said 45.5 million households watched the State of the Union Tuesday night.
It’s been tracking State of the Union numbers since 1994 and, according to Nielsen, there were actually four State of the Union speeches with higher numbers.
George W. Bush’s speech in 2002 right after 9/11 had more than 51 million viewers. His speech in 2003 had even more – 62 million.
Rounding out the top four were Barack Obama in 2010 and Bill Clinton in 1994.
So, did President Trump’s State of the Union have the largest TV audience ever?
We verified and find that claim to be FALSE.
SOURCES:
Nielson
