Trump's first State of the Union address earns a respectable 45 million viewers

WASHINGTON — Throughout his career in politics and entertainment, President Trump has put his faith in one metric perhaps more than any other: Television ratings.

And by that measure, his first official State of the Union address was a qualified success.

More than 45.5 million American households tuned in to watch the address Tuesday night, according to preliminary Nielsen Co. ratings. That means 26.9 percent of all households watched the 80-minute speech on one of the 13 networks — including three Spanish-language networks — measured by the ratings company.

Those results are in line with long-term trends, as presidents see ratings gradually decline over the course of their presidency.

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While that's fewer than watched Trump's address to Congress last year, it's more than any State of the Union address since President Barack Obama's first official State of the Union in 2010.

A president's first speech to Congress isn't technically considered a State of the Union address, since he hasn't been in office long enough to make the annual recommendations to Congress required by the Constitution.

The top social media moment — with 68,000 interactions — came as Trump outlined the "four pillars" of his immigration plan about an hour into his speech. Overall, Nielsen measured 21 million total interactions on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.viewers Tweeted in the minutes following Trump’s four pillar plan on immigration.

One bright spot for Trump: The State of the Union ratings are about twice as high as the highest-rated episode in his old job as host of NBC's Apprentice franchise. 

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