SOTU Live Stream | Watch the 2023 State of the Union Speech

The State of the Union Address is a yearly speech delivered by the President in front of a Joint Session of Congress. Members of Congress, Cabinet Secretaries, Supreme Court Justices, and dignitaries attend the speech on the House floor while guests invited by the President and senior members of Congress view the speech from the House gallery. The Speaker of the House and Vice President sit directly behind the President during the speech.

A typical State of the Union Address will have the President going over how they feel about the state of affairs in the country  and what they hope to accomplish in the coming year. Topics can vary depending on a number of factors, namely whether the country is at war and the state of the economy, but the speeches almost uniformly try to exude an upbeat assessment of the state of affairs in America. There is no time minimum or limit for a State of the Union Address, but they typically last between 60 and 90 minutes. 

Every broadcast and cable news channels air the State of the Union Address and the response delivered by a member or members of the opposition party of the President. Cable news channels have extensive pre and post debate political coverage while broadcast channels have more limited coverage surrounding the speech.

ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX all air the State of the Union Address and opposition response in their entirety along with a small amount of pre and post speech political coverage, while CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, among others, air extensive coverage leading up to and at the conclusion of the speech and opposition party response. 

The four broadcast channels air predominately politically neutral commentary and cover the speech from a purely apolitical perspective while the cable news channels vary in their political biases. 

CNN has journalists, commentators, and experts from across the political spectrum on air before and after the speech where they discuss it from all political angles while Fox News covers the speech from a conservative point of view and MSNBC covers the speech from a liberal point of view. However, all three channels have well known personalities opining on the address and how they think it played in homes across the United States.