Obama's State of the Union slips from last year

The State of the Union may be strong, but the viewership for president Obama's first official address slipped from last year's comparable telecast.

Obama's State of the Union Address was witnessed by 48 million viewers across 11 networks.

The president's speech declined 8% from his Address to the Joint Sessions of Congress speech last February. The number is also below the first official State of the Union Address made by George W. Bush (51.8 million) in 2002 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

Yet as latter-day State of the Union telecasts go, last night scored higher than average, and was up from Bill Clinton's first official Address (45.8 million) in 1994. ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, TEL, UNI, CNN, BET, CNBC, FOXNC and MSNBC carried last night's telecast. The speech also improved upon the president's last primetime speech in December on Afghanistan.

Year	President	Total viewers
2009	Obama*	52,373,000
2008	G.W. Bush	37,515,000
2007	G.W. Bush	45,486,000
2006	G.W. Bush	43,179,000
2005	G.W. Bush	39,432,000
2004	G.W. Bush	43,411,000
2003	G.W. Bush	62,061,000
2002	G.W. Bush	51,773,000
2001	G.W. Bush*	39,793,000
2000	Clinton	31,478,000
1999	Clinton	43,500,000

*Officially an "Address to the Joint Sessions of Congress"