TV Ratings: NBC Leads State of the Union Coverage, Viewership Down From 2012

9:06 AM PST 2/13/2013 by Michael O'Connell

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Early returns have President Obama's address dropping double digits on all of the broadcast networks.

Charles Dharapak-Pool/Getty Images

Tuesday night's rankings among broadcast networks were generally in line with which pulled the biggest haul of State of the Union viewers -- though Fast National returns have ratings down across the board from last year's presidential address.

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Coverage of the address aired live from 8 p.m. to approximately 10:15 pm, with networks offering varying degrees of analysis after the Republican response from senator Marco Rubio.

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NBC led the in coverage of the actual address with adults 18-49, getting an early score of a 1.6 rating before time zone adjustments. That's a 20 percent drop from last year's Fast National. Analysis was down less, 17 percent, to a 1.0 rating among adults 18-49. For the night, the network averaged a 1.4 adults rating.

Down 14 percent from last year, ABC News' coverage pulled a 1.2 rating with adults 18-49. For the night, the network averaged a 1.3 rating in the demo. Just behind ABC, CBS' State of the Union coverage (1.1 adults) was down 27 percent from last year's Fast Nationals. The network averaged a 1.2 adults for the night.

And Fox, pulling a 0.9 adults rating during the State of the Union and holding the average for the night, was down 47 percent.

Among total viewers, rankings are slightly different with CBS tracking ahead of NBC, followed by ABC and Fox. Final adjustments for the State of the Union will be available later on Wednesday.

Original programming on the Big Four was limited to ABC's one-hour airing of The Taste (1.5 adults). The broadcast was down 17 percent from its last broadcast.

The CW aired movie When In Rome, averaging a 0.5 adults rating and 1.5 million viewers.

Univision averaged a 1.6 rating with adults 18-49 and 3.8 million viewers for the night.