24 Million Tune In to Biden’s Press Conference

President Joe Biden’s televised press conference on Thursday evening drew a significant number of viewers.

Over 24 million people tuned in to watch the event across eight major broadcast and cable networks, according to Nielsen. This press conference was held at the conclusion of a NATO summit in Washington, amidst ongoing speculation regarding Biden’s potential re-election campaign after his lackluster debate performance against Donald Trump in late June.

Per Nielsen’s data, 24.16 million viewers watched the press conference on ABC, CBS, CNN, the Fox broadcast network, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, and Univision. Fox News led the pack with 5.67 million viewers from 7:30-8:30 p.m. ET. ABC followed closely with 4.97 million viewers, and CBS with 3.6 million narrowly edged out NBC, which had 3.55 million viewers. MSNBC gathered 2.52 million, CNN had 2.22 million, Fox broadcast attracted 998,000, and Univision had 620,000. These figures do not account for the networks’ digital and streaming platforms.

In the adults 25-54 demographic, which is highly coveted by news programs, ABC took the lead, attracting 879,000 viewers in that age range, slightly surpassing Fox News, which drew 835,000. CBS garnered 611,000, and NBC drew 592,000, reflecting their positions among total viewers as well. CNN had 439,000 in this key demographic, while MSNBC attracted 319,000, switching ranks compared to their total viewer numbers. The Fox broadcast network had 276,000 viewers aged 25-54, and Univision had 254,000 for the press conference.

As is common for multi-network political news events, the majority of the audience was aged 55 or older. According to Nielsen, viewers 55 and above accounted for 19.16 million of the total audience for Biden’s press conference, making up 79 percent of the total viewership.