Fox News Tops Cable SOTU Coverage

MSNBC takes second; NBC leads post-speech analysis on broadcast

By Andrea Morabito -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/25/2012 5:32:45 PM

Unsurprisingly, Fox News topped the ratings for coverage of President Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday night.

FNC drew 3.81 million total viewers for the speech, which ran from 9:11-10:17 p.m. ET. MSNBC edged out a second-place finish with 2.82 million total viewers and CNN had 2.67 million, according to Nielsen national ratings.

For the post-debate analysis, FNC actually increased its viewership, attracting 4.25 million watchers from 10:17-10:28 p.m. ET, well above MSNBC's 2.73 million viewers and CNN's 2.65 million in the time period.

All of the networks also carried the Republican response, given by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, which drew 4.22 million viewers on Fox News, 2.41 million on MSNBC and 2.2 million on CNN.

On broadcast, NBC was the most-watched network for the post-debate analysis from 10:16-10:30, delivering 7.46 million total viewers. ABC was second with 6.36 million and CBS was third with 5.78 million. NBC stayed with analysis until 11 p.m. while ABC and CBS ran comedy repeats.