Despite receiving more votes than former President Barack Obama, or any other president in history for that matter, President Joe Biden, a year into his presidency, is lacking the support that Obama had.

The New York Post reports that nowhere near as many people tuned in to watch Biden’s first State of the Union as tuned in to watch Obama’s first address. 

As will be demonstrated, Biden received some of the worst viewership numbers for his first State of the Union address of any president in several decades.

The numbers suggest just how unsuccessful Biden has been over his first year in office.

The numbers

Nielsen Media Research just released the viewership numbers for Biden’s State of the Union address, which took place on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. The group reports that over 38 million Americans tuned in.

This may sound like a big number. But, this 38 million number is relatively small for a president’s first State of the Union address.

Former President Obama, for example, had over 48 million people tune in to his first State of the Union address back in 2010. That’s roughly 10 million more than Biden, and it earned Obama a television viewership rating of 29.8, compared to Biden’s 22.4.

Former President Donald Trump also drew in significantly more viewers for his first State of the Union address than Biden did. In 2016, 45.5 million viewers tuned in to watch Trump, giving him a 26.9 viewership rating. And, there’s more.

Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also beat Biden here, with 51.8 million viewers tuning in to watch Bush’s first State of the Union in 2002 and 45.8 million tuning in to watch Clinton’s first address in 1994. This means that Biden has some of the worst viewership numbers for his first State of the Union address than any president in at least the past 30 years.

It makes sense

For the better part of a year, now, Biden has been doing horribly in the polls. He, in fact, just received some of his lowest approval numbers yet in polls that were released just before his address. And, it has been made clear by these polls that Biden’s low approval is the direct result of his administration’s many failures.

You wouldn’t know that, though, by Biden’s State of the Union address. Rather, you’d think that his administration is the best administration in history – that is, if one were to believe what Biden had to say during that speech.

This could explain part of the reason why not that many people tuned in. The better question, though, is how Biden even managed to draw 38 million viewers. In some sense, that’s got to be a success for him.