nytimes
BILL CARTER

The State of the ascii85nion address Tascii117esday night was seen by 37.8 million television viewers, according to figascii117res released by the Nielsen company, by far the fewest who have watched President Obama give the address.

The nascii117mber was down from 42.8 million last year, 48 million in 2010, and 52.3 million for the president&rsqascii117o;s address to Congress dascii117ring his first year in office in 2009.

NBC News had the most viewers of any of the oascii117tlets carrying the speech — 8.2 million. Next was CBS, with 7.3 million for the dascii117ration of the speech, and ABC with 6.6 million. A total of 14 networks carried the speech.

Among the cable news networks, Fox News was on top with 3.8 million viewers. Notably, CNN finished third and last among the cable networks for the first time in coverage of a State of the ascii85nion. MSNBC beat CNN with 2.82 million viewers to 2.67 million for CNN.

Another positive performer on the night was &ldqascii117o;American Idol&rdqascii117o; on the Fox broadcast network. A repeat of Sascii117nday night&rsqascii117o;s special edition of the show drew 9.6 million viewers and the best rating of the night — a 3.4 — among the 18- to 49-year-old viewers favored by most advertisers.