To quote Joey Tribbiani, "How you doin'?"
We'll find out how the country is doin' according to President Donald Trump when he delivers his first State of the Union address live at 8 p.m. today on all the usual networks.
Pick your favorite fair and balanced outlet: PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN, Univision, Fox News, MSNBC, C-Span or C-Span2. The White House website, whitehouse.gov, will also carry the speech live.
This will be Trump's second address to a joint session of Congress. His first, on Feb. 28, 2017, wasn't a formal State of the Union. In that speech, Trump set out his priorities for the coming year and touted his accomplishments during his first 40 days in office.
He also spoke about how his election changed the country.
"A new chapter of American greatness is now beginning," Trump said. "A new national pride is sweeping across our nation, and a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp."
Will this be the best, biggest and most-watched State of the Union speech in the history of the country? We'll see.
According to Nielsen data, President Barack Obama's first State of the Union in 2009 drew 52.4 million viewers, but his last in 2017 was seen by only 31.3 million. Trump's speech last year was seen by about 48 million viewers.
Following the president's speech, Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.) will present a rebuttal and will probably dispute everything that Trump just said. It will no doubt be pointed out that Trump has a record low approval rating which, according to Gallup, averaged 38.4 percent in his first year. That, Gallup says, "is at least 10 percentage points lower than that of any of his predecessors."
To add perspective, according to the last Gallup survey, Congress has a dismal approval rating of 17 percent, but that was up from November's embarrassing 13 percent.
Most of the news outlets above will kill the time between the end of the address and 10 p.m. with analysis, reaction, message parsing and commentary on how often the Republicans stood up and applauded and how often the Democrats sat on their hands. Also discussed will be who was sitting in the VIP box with Melania.
It'll either be fake news or not. You watch. You decide.
Trivia: According to Article II, Section 3, the Constitution calls upon the president to "from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."
Originally called the "annual message," the speech officially has been known as the State of the Union address since 1947.
This will be the 95th time a president has given the address in person. George Washington started the tradition of appearing before Congress, but Thomas Jefferson thought that was too imperial and opted to send a written annual report instead. Woodrow Wilson delivered his message in person in 1913 and so has every president since.
Washington's first State of the Union was also the shortest by word count -- only 1,089 words.
The longest speech in time taken to deliver it was President Bill Clinton's in 2000. It ran on and on for just under an hour and 29 minutes. Nobody in Arkansas was surprised.
• Cute animals. Animals With Cameras, A Nature Miniseries debuts at 7 p.m. Wednesday on AETN. The three-part series uses state-of-the-art cameras worn by the animals themselves to go where no human cameraman can go and witness a new perspective on animal life.
Nine species will be presented, including sprinting with a cheetah, diving with a seal, swinging through the trees with a chimp, in the den with meerkats and hunting with Magellanic penguins.
• Knightfall has become a hit for History Channel and Episode 9 airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday. Seeking to cash in on the growing interest in the series and the Knights Templar, History has concocted a new nonscripted series. See below.
• Buried: Knights Templar and the Holy Grail premieres at 7 p.m. Wednesday on History Channel. There will be four episodes.
The first episode "Holy City, Holy Grail," investigates the historical fate of the Knights Templar beginning in Jerusalem, where tunnels and a safe house may have been used to move holy relics to safety during the fall of the city.
Ensuing episodes will follow the Knights' movements from the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 to the mass execution by burning of its members in Paris and the order's disbanding in 1312.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Style on 01/30/2018