“NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” Posts Biggest Win Over ABC in 4 Weeks

OCTOBER 21, 2014 – “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” was #1 in total viewers, rating A25-54, and rating A18-49 for the week of October 13-17, 2014, according to Nielsen Media Research data.  Nightly has now been the #1 evening newscast in total viewers for 257 consecutive weeks.

The NBC broadcast marked its biggest total viewer audience since the week of 4/28/2014, and largest total viewer advantages over ABC in four weeks and over CBS since the week 6/9/2014

Week-to-week, Nightly widened its total viewer gap over ABC by 97% while also posting audience gains among A18-49 viewers (+3%) and A25-54 viewers (+5%).  Of the three evening newscasts, Nightly posted the largest total viewer growth versus the prior week (+221,000 or +3%) and versus the same week last season (+352,000, or +4%).  Nightly also widened its total viewer lead over ABC by 114% compared to the first three weeks of the season.

Versus current 4Q’14/season-to-date levels, Nightly added the most total viewers (+421,000) and A25-54 viewers (+184,000).  Compared to 4Q’14/STD levels, Nightly closed the demo gap vs. ABC by 93%.

Season-to-date, Nightly is averaging 8.466 million total viewers – its biggest delivery over the first four weeks of a season since 2005.

NOTE: Nielsen has now provided corrected data starting with the week of 9/15.  Other milestone points and comparisons are based on historical data that Nielsen will be revising.

Weekly Highlights:

• Nightly delivered 8.782 million total viewers, outperforming ABC by +8% (+687,000) and CBS by +36% (+2.344 million).
• On Wednesday, Nightly beat ABC by +1.245 million total viewers, its biggest single-day advantage since 8/21/2014.
• Nightly averaged a 1.8 A25-54 rating, tied for #1 with ABC and +5 tenths ahead of CBS.
• This marks Nightly’s highest W/A25-54 ratings since the week of 4/28/2014.
• Among A25-54 (000), Nightly averaged 2.108 million A25-54 viewers, topping CBS by +32% (+510,000).
• This marks Nightly’s biggest demo audience since the week of 3/31/2014, and the narrowest gap with ABC (6,000) since the week of 7/28/2014.
• On Thursday, Nightly had its biggest single-day A25-54 demo viewer win over ABC (+314,000) since 7/30/2014.
• Nightly delivered a 1.2 A18-49 rating, topping ABC by +1 tenth and CBS by +3 tenths.
• Among A18-49, Nightly delivered 1.541 million viewers, topping ABC by +109,000 and CBS by +452,000.

WEEK OF OCTOBER 6-10, 2014

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