Ratings for President Biden's State of the Union address saw a significant dip since last year, according to early Nielsen data.
Biden's speech on Tuesday was seen by roughly 23 million viewers across the seven major TV networks, which is down from the nearly 34 million that tuned into his first State of the Union address last year, .
The 2022 speech was a notable increase from Biden's first address to Congress in 2021, which also drew roughly 23 million viewers.
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Fox News Channel placed first among the major TV networks. Fox News' coverage, anchored by Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, averaged 4.6 million viewers.
ABC came in second with 4.3 million viewers, followed by NBC with 3.7 million, CBS with 3.52 million, MSNBC's 3.46 million, CNN's 2.3 million and Fox Broadcasting's 1.6 million.
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Fox News also topped cable news among the advertiser-coveted demographic of adults age 25-54, averaging 793,000 demo viewers compared to 617,000 for CNN and only 479,000 for MSNBC.
Notably, this is CNN's second consecutive defeat against MSNBC despite being the network once famous for its breaking news coverage. In November, CNN trailed MSNBC for the first time in its election coverage. For Biden's State of the Union address last year, CNN was ahead of MSNBC. Both were outpaced by Fox News Channel.
Biden fans in the media praised his speech while Republicans accused the president of remaining divisive.
The most explosive moment of the night occurred when Biden falsely suggested that Republicans were planning to "sunset" programs like Social Security and Medicare, sparking jeers and boos from GOP lawmakers.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was seen shouting, "Liar!" at the president.
"Well I'm glad - I'll tell ya, I enjoy conversion," Biden joked. "It means if Congress doesn't keep the programs the way they are, they'd go away. Other Republicans say - I'm not saying it's a majority of you… but it's being proposed by an individual."
"I'm politely not naming them, but it is being proposed by somebody," Biden added.
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Biden was likely referring to an agenda proposal introduced last year by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who suggested "All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again."
Scott's proposal, which was widely rejected even by Republicans, was made in his failed bid to challenge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Even the liberal Washington Post declared the Democrats' claim that Republicans want to end Social Security and Medicare as "false."
Fox News' Brian Flood contributed to this report.
