41 million watch Bush’s address

More than 41 million viewers tuned in to watch President Bush deliver the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, about 3 million more than watched last year, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Nevertheless, the speech was only the fourth-highest-ranking State of the Union of his presidency, drawing substantially fewer viewers than in 2002 and 2003.

Although most people watched the speech on a broadcast network, the Fox News cable channel drew its largest audience for a State of the Union address, with an average viewership of more than 6.4 million. Rival CNN attracted 2.2 million people, while MSNBC drew 707,000.

Matea Gold