The TV viewership for President Trump’s historic second inauguration fell far short of the audience for his first ceremony in 2017 and former President Biden’s 2021 event.
Nielsen data showed Trump’s festivities averaged 24.6 million viewers across 15 networks from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern, a decline of 27% from four years ago. The figure was also down 20% from Trump’s first inauguration.
The audience level for a presidential inauguration are historically far lower for incumbents elected to a second term. But there is no comparable situation for Trump, the first president elected to a second nonconsecutive term since Grover Cleveland in 1892.
The ratings for cable news outlets broke down along political leanings, with conservative-leaning Fox News pulling 10.3 million viewers from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern, when Trump and Vice President JD Vance were sworn in and the president spoke to the gathering in the Capitol Rotunda. CNN averaged 1.7 million viewers for the proceedings while progressive MSNBC scored 848,000 viewers.
Inauguration viewing peaked overall in the 12:15 p.m. Eastern quarter hour at 34.4 million, falling short of the 40 million viewers who watched Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris take the oath of office in 2021.
Millions of viewers watched some portion of Trump’s inauguration on streaming platforms as well. Fox Television Stations’ LiveNOW averaged 1.7 million viewers during the swearing-in ceremony, the most of any channel on YouTube. The stream on Trump’s own YouTube channel peaked at 704,798 viewers.
