NBC Broadcast Up 5% Week-to-Week and Widens Lead Over ABC by 550,000 Viewers

MARCH 24, 2015 — “NBC Nightly News” was America’s most-watched evening newscast for the week of March 16-20, 2015, according to Nielsen Media Research data.  The NBC broadcast was #1 in total viewers and the younger demo A18-49, and came within a margin of 6,000 viewers A25-54.

Nightly delivered its biggest margin of victory over ABC in six weeks (since the week of 2/2/15).  Nightly posted the largest week-to-week total viewer growth among the evening newscasts, increasing by +387,000 viewers (up +5%).  Compared to the prior week, the NBC broadcast widened its lead over ABC in both total viewers (from +11,000 to +561,000) and A18-49 viewers (from +43,000 to +61,000).

Season-to-date, Nightly is the #1 evening news broadcast in total viewers and all key demographics.  Nightly has been #1 in total viewers for 287 consecutive weeks and 330 of the last 331 weeks.

NOTE: CBS Evening News is based on a 3-day average (Mon-Wed) due to the NCAA basketball tournament.  Tournament games also aired on three other networks Thurs-Fri.

Weekly Highlights:

• Nightly averaged 8.518 million total viewers, leading ABC World News Tonight by +561,000 and CBS Evening News by +1.588 million.
• On Tuesday, Nightly led ABC by +916,000 total viewers, its largest single-day margin in almost a month (since 2/19/2015).
• Nightly averaged 1.935 million A25-54 viewers, topping CBS by +397,000.
• Nightly delivered a 1.6 A25-54 rating, tied for #1 with ABC and +2 tenths more than CBS.
• Nightly averaged 1.376 million A18-49 viewers, topping ABC by +61,000 and CBS by +357,000.
• Nightly delivered a 1.1 A18-49 rating, +1 tenth more than ABC and +3 tenths more than CBS.

Season-to-Date Highlights:

• Nightly is averaging 9.326 million total viewers this season, leading ABC by +6% (+536,000) and CBS by +26% (+1.925 million).
• Nightly is averaging 2.228 million A25-54 viewers season-to-date, topping ABC by +2% (+35,000) and CBS by +26% (+454,000).
• Nightly’s 1.609 million A18-49 viewers leads ABC by +9% (+137,000) and CBS by +35% (+417,000) this season.

WEEK OF MARCH 16-20, 2015

	Total Viewers	A25-54 Rating	A25-54 Viewers	A18-49 Ratings	A18-49 Viewers
NBC	8.518	1.62	1.935	1.08	1.376
CBS	6.930	1.29	1.538	0.80	1.019
ABC	7.957	1.62	1.941	1.04	1.315

 

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