The swirling questions about President Joe Biden’s age and mental fitness for office have captured Americans’ attention.

More than 23 million people — a bigger audience than this year’s Academy Awards — tuned in Thursday evening to see how Biden handled his first live news conference since a poor performance at last month’s debate with former President Donald Trump.

The television audience amounted to roughly 45% of the 51.3 million who watched the debate, according to Nielsen.

The president’s nearly hourlong appearance, at the NATO summit in Washington, was one of the most-watched telecasts of the year, outside of sporting events. It aired across several major TV networks, with ABC, CBS and NBC all preempting regular entertainment programming.

Millions more may have watched on digital news sites and social media platforms, which are, for the most part, not captured by Nielsen’s data.

Compared with his predecessors, Biden rarely grants solo news conferences, which added to the novelty of Thursday’s event.

Fox News attracted the largest audience of any network, 5.7 million, representing nearly a quarter of the overall television viewership. ABC was the highest-rated broadcaster, with 5 million viewers, possibly benefiting from a lead-in from “Jeopardy!,” the game show that aired immediately before Biden’s news conference.

Roughly 4 of 5 viewers were 55 or older, Nielsen said. ABC drew the largest audience among adults 25 to 54, the key demographic for advertisers in cable news.

Biden’s interview with George Stephanopoulos, which aired last Friday on ABC, was seen by 8.5 million viewers.

The New York Times News Service