NBC 'Nightly News' Delivers Demo Win Over ABC

Brian Williams

“NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” was America’s #1 newscast across the board for the week of December 1-5, 2014, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

During the week that marked Brian Williams’ tenth anniversary as anchor and managing editor, the NBC broadcast posted its biggest wins over ABC in months -- delivering the best demo viewer lead since March and widest total viewer advantage since August. Nightly was #1 in all total viewer, A25-54, and A18-49 demos each night of the week.

Growth:

• Nightly widened its total viewer lead over ABC for the second straight week and by +40% week-to-week.
• Nightly posted the biggest evening news gains versus 4Q’14/STD levels in total viewers (+7%, or +658,000), A18-49 viewers (+11%, or +174,000), and A25-54 viewers (+10%, or +216,000)
• Versus the same week last season, Nightly was up +1% (+77,000) in total viewers.
• Nightly is currently delivering +2% total viewer growth this season-to-date and is having its best start to a season (9.052 million) in 9 years.

Weekly Highlights:

• Nightly averaged 9.649 million total viewers, +9% (+809,000) ahead of ABC World News Tonight and +29% (+2.169 million) more than CBS Evening News.

This marks the NBC broadcast’s biggest  total viewer win over ABC since the week of 8/18/2014.
Nightly has been #1 in total viewers for 273 consecutive weeks and 320 of the last 321 weeks.

• Nightly averaged 2.313 million A25-54 viewers, leading ABC by +8% (+173,000) and CBS by +23% (436,000).

This marks Nightly’s biggest demo viewer win over ABC since the week of 3/17/2014.
Nightly averaged a 1.9 A25-54 rating, topping ABC by +1 tenth and CBS by +3 tenths.

• Nightly averaged 1.700 million A18-49 viewers, topping ABC by +19% (+272,000) and CBS by +31% (+402,000).

This marks Nightly’s biggest A18-49 viewer win over ABC since the Sochi Olympics (week of 2/17/2014).

• Nightly delivered a 1.3 A18-49 rating, topping ABC by +2 tenths and CBS by +3 tenths.