Only Show To Continue To Dominate On Sunday While Launching On Streaming, Podcasts & Digital Series

Tops Competition By Double Digits In Key Demo

Dec. 15, 2020 – For the fifth straight year, Meet the Press with Chuck Todd (MTP) will be the #1 most-watched Sunday show in the all-important key demo for 2020, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

With two Sundays remaining in 2020, MTP is set to outpace all other Sunday morning public affairs programs in the demo most valued by news advertisers for five straight years and for 23 out of the past 26 years. 

MTP topped both ABC’s This Week and CBS’s Face the Nation by double digits in the key demo and averaged 821,000 A25-54 viewers, topping ABC by +17 percent (+117,000) and CBS by +14 percent (+102,000). This marks MTP’s best key demo streak in eight years (since 2012) and best key demo delivery in two years (since 2018). Compared to last year, MTP was up five percent (+42,000).

An average of 3.542 million total viewers tuned into MTP, topping ABC by +13 percent (+403,000). This marks MTP’s best total viewer delivery in four years (since 2016). Compared to last year, MTP was up nine percent (+285,000). 

Note: During the 2020 broadcast year, CBS’s Face The Nation chose to exclude seven broadcasts, including the entire month of July, historically one of the lowest-rated months each year. With two weeks remaining, CBS’s Face The Nation was rated for 17 fewer hours than MTP this year, by eliminating their lowest-rated programs from the year-end average and continuing to rate for only the first 30 minutes of its hour-long broadcast. Less than one percent separate MTP from CBS, which follows the highly-rated CBS Sunday Morning.

MTP also continues to dominate the influential Washington, D.C. market, winning every Sunday with total viewers in over five years (since March 22, 2015).

In 2020, the longest-running show in television history continued to expand its brand and reach new audiences outside of the flagship Sunday program.

MTP EXPANDS TO STREAMING: WEEKLY MEET THE PRESS REPORTS ON PEACOCK AND NBC NEWS NOW 

MTP debuted Meet the Press Reports, a 30-minute program on NBC News NOW and Peacock, focusing on a single topic explored through the Meet the Press lens. In its first season, Meet the Press Reports with Chuck Todd led viewers through deep-dives on pivotal election issues, historical moments and under-reported political issues with long-form interviews, expert discussions, historical archives, and more.

NEW MTP COLLEGE ROUNDTABLE SERIES GIVES A PLATFORM TO 15 COLLEGE JOURNALISM STUDENTS 

This year, MTP also launched the limited digital series, Meet the Press: College Roundtable, a weekly, virtual panel discussion bringing together college journalism students from across the country to interview lawmakers on issues affecting them, their communities and the future of their education. Fifteen students shared their insight and analysis and showcased their interview skills by posing questions to decision makers on the topics that matter most to them.

PLUS, MTP ADDS FIVE-PART PODCAST SERIES RECOUNTING THE 2000 ELECTION — FLORIDA FLORIDA FLORIDA 

MTP also debuted Florida Florida Florida, a five-part podcast series as part of The Chuck ToddCast that re-examined the historic and infamous 2000 presidential recount and the consequences it has had on elections 20 years later. Less than a month before the 2020 election, the podcast explored the ten enduring political lessons from the 2000 recount that would play a role in the 2020 election, and the lessons learned from Bush v. Gore, the Florida recount and its political relevance even two decades later.

In addition to this year’s new launches, Todd continued hosting the 1 p.m. weekday show on MSNBC, MTP Daily, showcasing his hard-hitting interviewing style, as well as the ongoing weekly podcast, The Chuck ToddCast, which features interviews with top reporters from the nation’s capital and exclusive sit-down interviews and on-the-ground dispatches from across the 2020 campaign trail.

This year, the annual Meet the Press Film Festival, now in its fourth year appeared as part of the American Film Institute’s all-virtual AFI Festival and showcased the best in issue-based documentary shorts, bringing together filmmakers, subjects, audiences and NBC News correspondents in an all-virtual setting for unique, thought-provoking discussions. Over the last four years, past festival films have earned more than a dozen Oscar® and Emmy® nominations. Last year’s featured short documentary Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re A Girl) won the 2020 Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Subject at the 92nd-annual Academy Awards. 

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For more information, contact:

Richard Hudock
NBC News
e: Richard.Hudock@nbcuni.com

Joya Manasseh
NBC News
e: Joya.Manasseh@nbcuni.com

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MEET THE PRESS WITH CHUCK TODD

Meet the Press with Chuck Todd is where newsmakers come to make news — setting the political agenda and spotlighting the impact Washington decision-making has on Americans across the country. It is the #1 most-watched Sunday public affairs show for the 2019-2020 season, reaching more than three million viewers every Sunday and millions more through social, digital and on-demand platforms. Meet the Press brings its authority and influencer interviews to MSNBC with MTP Daily weekdays at 1 p.m. ET and to The Chuck ToddCast. It’s the longest-running show in television history, recently expanding its brand to include a political short-documentary film festival in collaboration with the American Film Institute. Chuck Todd is the political director of NBC News and the moderator of Meet the Press; John Reiss is the executive producer.