Title: Viewership for Trump's Second Inaugural Dips Below Previous Years' Numbers
Based on audience data from Nielsen, Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration in 2021 drew an average audience of 24.6 million viewers across 15 networks. The event, which took place from 10:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (ET), peaked at 34.4 million viewers during the 12:15 PM quarter-hour. As expected, older viewers dominated the audience, with adults 55+ accounting for 17.4 million viewers, representing over 70% of the total audience. Interestingly, Trump is only the second President to have two non-consecutive inaugurations, joining Grover Cleveland in 1885 and 1893.
Interestingly, the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden saw a higher audience due to the pandemic and the scaled-back festivities, averaging 33.8 million viewers. This was the first time Nielsen included CTV and out-of-home viewing in their audience figure for an inauguration. Streaming continues to grow as a video source, with 43.3% share of all video usage in December 2024, according to Nielsen's monthly Gauge report.
Historically, the second inauguration of a President often has a lower audience than the first. However, there are exceptions, like Richard Nixon's second inaugural in 1973, which had more viewers than his first inauguration. In fact, Ronald Reagan is the only President to have had two inaugurals with larger audiences for the second event. The 2025 inauguration will be held on January 20, and the reported networks are ABC, CBS, NBC, Merit Street Media, Telemundo, Univision, CNBC, CNN, CNNe, Fox News Channel, Fox Business Network, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation, and PBS.
The 2021 Biden inauguration had the highest audience since Ronald Reagan's first inauguration in 1981, which boasted an audience of 41.8 million viewers. The second inauguration of George W. Bush in 2005 had the lowest audience of just 15.5 million viewers, highlighting the significant variation in audience sizes for these events.
Despite Trump's second inauguration in 2021 having a lower audience compared to some previous non-consecutive inaugurals, it still managed to attract a substantial TV audience of 24.6 million viewers. Notably, Trump's inaugural television audience was larger than that of Grover Cleveland's second inaugural in 1893, making him one of only two Presidents with two non-consecutive inaugurations with larger television audiences.
