Maybe thinking about healthcare was too much for television audiences for one night.

But whatever the reason, viewers turned out in smaller numbers for the season premiere of "Glee" on Fox despite an intense marketing campaign to promote the early start of the show.

"Glee" earned a 4.6 rating/7 share in its debut, down 25.8 percent from the 6.2/9 the pilot earned last May, according to Fast National ratings from The Nielsen Co.

But there was a lot of strange competition on the air Wednesday night, including an address by President Barack Obama to a joint session of Congress the hour before, which spilled into the 9 p.m. hour. Fox was the only network of the Big Four to not air the address, instead going with its already scheduled fare including "So You Think You Can Dance."

That show earned a 3.9/6, beating only CBS' coverage of the Presidential address as well as the first hour of the season premiere of "America's Next Top Model" on The CW, according to Zap2it.

"Glee" finished well behind "America's Got Talent" on NBC, which earned a 6.0/9 and gaining 15 percent from its Presidential lead-in. "Glee," on the other hand, grew its "Dance" audience by nearly 18 percent, beating out a "Criminal Minds" rerun on CBS and "Wipeout" on ABC. CBS actually grew its audience from the address into "Criminal Minds" by 10.5 percent while ABC lost 33 percent going into "Wipeout."

"Glee," however, won adults 18 to 49, a key advertising demographic, with a 3.3 household rating, leading Fox to a win in that demo for the night.

NBC topped Wednesday with a 5.2/8, followed by Fox with a 4.2/7.

Fast Nationals usually provide a snapshot of what Americans are watching by pulling numbers from the top urban markets that includes both live viewing and same-day timeshifted viewing. A rating point generally represents more than 1.1 million households while the share indicates the percentage of televisions turned on that was tuned to the specific program. These numbers typically shift when final ratings are issued.