The dying presidential address

Political scientists Matthew Baum and Samuel Kernell analysed American viewership of presidential addresses in 2006, and found a steep decline in the number of people tuning in to view them:


Of course, it's important to note that much of this decline might be due to shifting habits in consumption of news and information, away from television to the internet and other sources, but the data seems pretty persuasive. Ezra Klein captions:

President Obama’s speeches fall in line with this trend. His State of the Union addresses average a 0.30 Nielsen rating, which measures the percent of households tuned in to an average minute of a program. Even Obama’s most-watched speech, on the death of Osama Bin Laden, only hit a 0.34 Nielsen rating, far below averages for Nixon and Ford.

Something to keep in mind, perhaps, for tonight's State of the Union.