NBC Broadcast is #1 Across the Board

Season to Date, Nightly is Only Evening Newscast to Post Year-Over-Year Demo Growth

FEBRUARY 2, 2016 — “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was #1 in all key demographics for the week of January 25-29, leading ABC’s “World News Tonight” by over 400,000 total viewers for the second straight week.  The NBC broadcast has been #1 in the key A25-54 demo for nine consecutive weeks and 30 of the 32 weeks since Holt was named anchor.

On Monday, Nightly delivered its biggest single-day total viewer audience (10.670 million) and win over ABC (+1.155 million) in over a month (since 12/2/2015), as well as its biggest single-day demo win over ABC since the Sochi Olympics two years ago (2/12/2014).

Compared to the same week last season, Nightly widened the gap over ABC in both A25-54 viewers (by 63%) and A18-49 viewers (by 26%).

Season-to-date, Nightly is the #1 evening newscast across the board and the only network to post growth in the A25-54 demo, while both ABC and CBS are down.

NOTE: As of 12/28/15, Nielsen national ratings are based on an expanded sample known as “NPX,” which effectively doubles the size of the Nielsen panel through a combination of additional meters and HHs. While NPX is now the official currency of record, all data pre-12/28/15 remains based on the old sample — so year-to-year and other comparisons are versus pre-NPX data.

Weekly Highlights

• Nightly averaged 9.602 million total viewers, leading ABC World News Tonight by +417,000 (+5%) and CBS Evening News by +1.616 million (+20%).
• Nightly averaged 2.431 million A25-54 viewers, +353,000 (+17%) more than ABC and +565,000 (+30%) more than CBS.
• Nightly delivered a 2.05 A25-54 rating, +0.30 points ahead of ABC and +0.48 points more than CBS.
• Nightly averaged 1.803 million A18-49 viewers, +305,000 (+20%) more than ABC and +491,000 (+37%) more than CBS.
• Nightly delivered a 1.42 A18-49 rating, +0.24 points higher than ABC and +0.39 points better than CBS.

Season-to-Date Highlights

• Nightly averages 9.078 million total viewers, +304,000 (+3%) ahead of ABC and +1.527 million (+20%) more than CBS.
• Nightly averages 2.225 million A25-54 viewers, leading ABC by +217,000 (+11%) and CBS by +482,000 (+28%).
• Nightly is the only evening newscast to post A25-54 growth this season (+1.2%, or +27,000) while both ABC (-7%, or -159,000) and CBS (-1%, or -19,000) have declined.
• Nightly has widened its A25-54 lead vs. ABC by 187,000 viewers versus last season (+217,000 lead this season vs. a +30,000 gap last year).  Nightly has also improved its A25-54 gap over CBS by 11% versus last season (482,000 lead this season vs. +435,000 a year ago).
• Nightly averages 1.607 million A18-49 viewers, outperforming ABC by +233,000 (+17%) and CBS by +425,000 (+36%).
• Nightly has widened its A18-49 advantages this season over both ABC (+63%) and CBS (+3%).

WEEK OF JANUARY 25-29, 2016

	Total Viewers	A25-54 Rating	A25-54 Viewers	A18-49 Rating	A18-49 Viewers
NBC	9.602	2.05	2.431	1.42	1.803
CBS	7.986	1.57	1.866	1.03	1.312
ABC	9.185	1.75	2.078	1.18	1.498

 

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