Nightly Posts Biggest Demo Audience Since February
NBC is Only Newscast to Grow in Key Demo Year-to-Year; Delivers Largest Demo Win Over ABC Since Sochi Olympics
Nightly is #1 Across The Board For 17 Straight Weeks, Marks 22nd Straight Total Viewer Win
NOVEMBER 24, 2015 – During the week following the Paris terror attacks, “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” was #1 across the board, delivering its largest total viewer audience since March and widest advantage over CBS in eight weeks. Holt reported and anchored the broadcast from Paris Monday through Thursday last week.
The NBC broadcast posted its biggest A25-54 audience since February and its widest A25-54 advantage over ABC since the Sochi Olympics (the week of 2/10/15).
Week-to-week, Nightly posted the largest gains among the evening newscasts in A25-54 viewers (+6%, or +129,000) and A18-49 viewers (+4%, or +75,000).
Nightly was the only broadcast to grow in the A25-54 demo year-to-year, posting a +1% gain, while ABC and CBS are both down (-15% and -7% respectively). Year to year, Nightly’s advantages over ABC in the younger demos increased by 1,243% among A25-54 and 156% among A18-49.
Compared to its 4Q’15-to-date levels, Nightly also delivered the biggest growth among its competition in total viewers (13%, or +1,103,000), A25-54 viewers (+21%, or +428,000), and A18-49 viewers (+22%, or +319,000).
Nightly has now won among total viewers for 22 consecutive weeks, 27 of the last 30 weeks and 315 of the last 322 weeks.
Weekly Highlights:
- Nightly averaged 9.608 million total viewers, outperforming ABC by +477,000 (+5%) and CBS by +1.623 million (20%).
- Nightly’s total audience rose for the fourth straight week, hitting it highest delivery since the week of 3/2/2015.
- Nightly averaged 2.467 million A25-54 viewers, +403,000 (+20%) higher than ABC and +719,000 (+41%) more than CBS.
- Nightly’s demo lead over ABC increased for the 3rd straight week.
- Nightly has been #1 among A25-54 for 16 straight weeks and 20 of the last 21 weeks.
- Nightly averaged 1.785 million A18-49 viewers, leading ABC by +376,000 (+27%) and CBS by +612,000 (+52%).
- Nightly had its biggest A18-49 delivery and widest gap over CBS since the week of 2/2/2015.
- Nightly has led ABC by at least 100,000 A18-49 viewers for 14 consecutive week.
Season-to-Date Highlights:
- Nightly is averaging 8.633 million total viewers, leading ABC by +251,000 (+3% )and CBS by +1.417 million (+20%).
- Nightly is averaging 2.089 million A25-54 viewers, leading ABC by +169,000 (+9%) and CBS by +472,000 (+29%).
- Nightly is averaging 1.503 million A18-49 viewers, leading ABC by +207,000 (+16 %) and CBS by
- +418,000 (+39%).
- Nightly has seen a 527% turnaround in the A25-54 gap versus last year when it trailed ABC by -40,000.
- Compared to last year, Nightly has more than doubled its A18-49 advantage over ABC (+126%, from a +92,000 advantage last year).
WEEK OF NOVEMBER 16-20, 2015
| Total Viewers | A25-54 Rating | A25-54 Viewers | A18-49 Rating | A18-49 Viewers | |
| NBC | 9.608 | 2.1 | 2.467 | 1.4 | 1.785 |
| CBS | 7.985 | 1.5 | 1.748 | 0.9 | 1.173 |
| ABC | 9.161 | 1.7 | 2.064 | 1.1 | 1.409 |
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Maggie Steenland
NBC News Communications
212.664.7874
