Folks, this is why I’m frequently depressed with the ol’ US and A. Want to know what the state of the union is? It’s a country where more people watch American Idol than the president’s address.

Each of the Big Four networks covered the State of the Union address Tuesday night, but it was “American Idol” that led FOX to a ratings win.

FOX averaged a 9.4 rating/15 share for the night (numbers for everyone but The CW are affected by live coverage of the presidential speech). CBS took second with a 6.2/10. NBC, 4.8/7, came in third, followed by ABC at 3.9/6. The CW earned a 2.2/3.

That’s right. More people watched American Idol on FOX than the sum of the people watching the SOTU on the Big Four. Adding the cable stations finally lets the address pull ahead, but that’s not really encouraging.

The SOTU address was on the Big Four and an additional five cable stations. It had to be on instead of House, The Unit, Big Day, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (plus Veronica Mars on The CW, but who cares about that razz?) as well as five more channels in order to usurp the one-channel Idol. Not to mention be on afterwards, grabbing all of the FOX viewers who were expecting House to show up.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m happy that many people watched. I just think that it doesn’t show quite so much a swelling of political interest so much as a “well, there’s not much else on” situation.