The State of the Union is Joe Biden's chance to talk to the nation but viewers ... trends now
The State of the Union is the president's big, once-a-year chance to talk to the nation.
Just one problem: Is the nation listening?
Cory Griffin is only half listening. 'I usually catch up with it the next day,' he said, as he paused on the Las Vegas strip waiting for the famous fountain display in front of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino.
'It's just too dry. It's not engaging.'
This year he is on vacation with all the distractions of Las Vegas around him. But even at home in Chicago the 42-year-old business analyst usually catches up with it the day after, when it has been analyzed and packaged into digestible highlights.
Last year, only 38 million people tuned in to watch President Joe Biden deliver his State of the Union address. In 1993, almost 67 million people watched Bill Clinton appear in Congress
Spectators watching the fountains in front of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino said they wouldn't bother tuning in to the State of the Union on Tuesday. And who can blame them?
'When Trump was in office it was more unpredictable,' he added. 'Even then I didn't need to watch it live.'
Maybe it is unfair to ask people on the multicolored Las Vegas strip, with its mini Eiffel Tower, pirate ships and volcano displays (on the hour from 7pm to 11pm in front of the Mirage) whether they can tear themselves away from the illuminations to spend more than an hour to watch an old man in a navy suit deliver a speech from a podium.
But if Las Vegas represents one end of the nation's entertainment spectrum, and Washington D.C., with its political nerds who view the State of the Union as their Oscars, Super Bowl and royal wedding rolled into one, the numbers suggest much of America is moving away from big political set pieces.
Bill Clinton's 1993 address drew in almost 67 million viewers, according to data collected by Statista.
Numbers have been on a downward trend ever since, with occasional fillips for 9/11 and Trump.
Last year, Biden attracted 38.2 million viewers. That was respectable compared with the 26.9 million he managed in 2021 (technically a speech to a joint session of Congress.)
That's still a decent audience and the White House has made clear it sees it as a key way to get its message out, without going through the filter of newspapers, or websites, or news bulletins, or
