As News of the Shooting Unfolded on Wednesday, Nightly Posted Largest Single-Day Total Viewer Gap Over ABC Since June
NBC is Only Broadcast Up Across-The-Board Compared to Same Week Last Year
DECEMBER 8, 2015– During the week of the San Bernardino shootings, more viewers turned to “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” than any other network newscast. The NBC broadcast was #1 across-the-board, delivering its widest weekly advantage over ABC in 5 months (week of 6/29/2015). Holt led special hour-long live editions of the broadcast for every time zone on Wednesday and reported and anchored from San Bernardino, CA on Thursday and Friday last week.
Nightly topped ABC by at least one million viewers on three evenings last week (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday). On Wednesday, Nightly posted its largest single-day advantage over ABC (1.444 million) since 6/14/2015. The NBC broadcast also led CBS by over 1.9 million viewers for the second straight week.
Nightly was the only newscast to post across-the-board growth versus the same week last season: +2% or +172,000 total viewers, +4% or+100,000 A25-54 viewers, and +1% or +17,000 A18-49 viewers. Despite the week’s major news, ABC was down in the A25-54 demo (-1%) and CBS was down in the A18-49 demo (-3%) year-to-year.
Compared to its 4Q’15-to-date levels, the NBC broadcast delivered double-digit increases across-the-board: (+13%, or +1.102 million) in total viewers, (+15%, or +308,000) A25-54 viewers, and (+13%, or +202,000) A18-49 viewers. Nightly’s total viewer gap over ABC was almost triple the 4Q’15 average (+855,000 last week vs. +286,000 4Q’15-to-date), while its A25-54 lead over ABC was up by +76% (+299,000 last week vs. +170,000 4Q’15-to-date).
Nightly has now won among total viewers for 24 consecutive weeks, 29 of the last 32 weeks and 364 of the last 372 weeks.
Weekly Highlights:
- Nightly averaged 9.821 million total viewers, outperforming ABC by +855,000 (+10%) and CBS by +1.919 million (24%).
- Nightly averaged 2.413 million A25-54 viewers, +299,000 (+14%) higher than ABC and +542,000 (+29%) more than CBS.
- Nightly has been #1 among A25-54 for 22 of the last 24 weeks.
- Nightly averaged 1.717 million A18-49 viewers, leading ABC by +291,000 (+20%) and CBS by +461,000 (+37%).
- Nightly has been #1 among A18-49 for 18 straight weeks, 23 of the last 24 weeks, and 27 of the last 30 weeks.
Season-to-Date Highlights:
- Nightly is averaging 8.827 million total viewers, leading ABC by +334,000 (+4% )and CBS by +1.514 million (+21%).
- Nightly is averaging 2.135million A25-54 viewers, leading ABC by +180,000 (+9%) and CBS by +487,000 (+30%).
- Nightly has seen a 197,000 viewer turnaround in the A25-54 gap versus last year when it trailed ABC by -18,000.
- Nightly is averaging 1.535 million A18-49 viewers, leading ABC by +217,000 (+17 %) and CBS by
- +427,000 (+39%).
- Compared to the same point last season, Nightly’s A18-49 lead over ABC is up by 88% while its advantage over CBS is 11% higher.
WEEK OF NOVEMBER 30-DECEMBER 4, 2015:
| Total Viewers | A25-54 Rating | A25-54 Viewers | A18-49 Rating | A18-49 Viewers | |
| NBC | 9.821 | 2.0 | 2.413 | 1.4 | 1.717 |
| CBS | 7.902 | 1.6 | 1.871 | 1.0 | 1.256 |
| ABC | 8.966 | 1.8 | 2.114 | 1.1 | 1.426 |
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Maggie Steenland
NBC News Communications
212.664.7874
