NBC Broadcast Tops ABC By Nearly 700,000 Viewers On Primary Night
Season to Date, Nightly is Only Evening Newscast to Post Year-Over-Year Demo Growth
FEBRUARY 17, 2016– During the week of the New Hampshire primary, “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was #1 in total viewers and all categories, marking 31 wins in the 34 weeks since Holt was named anchor.
On Tuesday, the night of the primary, Nightly topped ABC by nearly 700,000 viewers as Holt anchored live updates for every time zone from Manchester, NH.
Compared to the same week last season, Nightly improved its A25-54 gap over ABC by 262% (+181,000 last week vs. +50,000 last year) and its A18-49 gap by 55% (+216,000 last week vs. +139,000 last year).
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 9.397 million total viewers, outperforming ABC by +187,000 (+2%) and CBS by +1.564 million (20%).
- Nightly averaged 2.361 million A25-54 viewers, +181,000 (+8%) higher than ABC and +382,000 (+19%) more than CBS.
- Nightly averaged 1.736 million A18-49 viewers, leading ABC by +216,000 (+14%) and CBS by +387,000 (+29%).
- Nightly has been #1 among total viewers 4 of the last 5 weeks, 31 of the last 34 weeks, and 372 of the last 384 weeks.
- Nightly won its 11th consecutive week in A25-54 demo viewers and has been #1 in 32 of the last 34 weeks.
- The NBC broadcast is #1 in A18-49 viewers for 29 consecutive weeks, 33 of the last 34 weeks, and 37 of the last 40 weeks.
Season-to-Date Highlights:
- Nightly is averaging 9.103 million total viewers, leading ABC by +280,000 (+3% )and CBS by +1.526 million (+20%).
- Nightly is averaging 2.236 million A25-54 viewers, leading ABC by +214,000 (+11%) and CBS by +473,000 (+27%).
- Nightly is the only evening newscast to post A25-54 growth this season (+0.7%, or +17,000) while both ABC (-7%, or -159,000) and CBS (-0.2%, or -4,000) have declined.
- Nightly is averaging 1.618 million A18-49 viewers, leading ABC by +229,000 (+17 %) and CBS by +420,000 (+35%).
WEEK OF FEBRUARY 8-12 2016:
| Total Viewers | A25-54 Rating | A25-54 Viewers | A18-49 Rating | A18-49 Viewers | |
| NBC | 9.397 | 2.0 | 2.361 | 1.4 | 1.736 |
| CBS | 7.833 | 1.7 | 1.979 | 1.1 | 1.349 |
| ABC | 9.210 | 1.8 | 2.180 | 1.2 | 1.520 |
