Thursday Primetime Coverage on NBC Delivers 4.6 Million Total Viewers and a 1.5 A25-54 Rating
More Viewers, 7.5 Million, Watch NBC News and MSNBC for Thursday Primetime Coverage of RNC than Any Other News Organization
NBC is the Only Network to Grow Across the Board from 2012 RNC Night Four, Up 35% in the Demo
CLEVELAND, OH (July 22, 2016) – More Americans turned to NBC News for coverage of the 2016 Republican National Convention than any other broadcast television network. According to Nielsen Media Research data, NBC News’s coverage of the 2016 RNC averaged 4.6 million viewers during its four nights of coverage (July 18 – 21), +47% more than ABC (3.1 million) and +53% over CBS (3 million). In the news demo, NBC averaged 1.7 million A54-54 viewers, leading ABC by +600,000 (+55%) and CBS by +786,000 (+86%).
On Thursday night (10p-11:45p), NBC averaged 4.6 million total viewers, outperforming ABC by +726,000 (+19%) and CBS by +778,000 (+20%). NBC delivered a 3.0/6 Household rating/share, ahead of both CBS and ABC’s 2.5/5.
In the key news demographic of A25-54, NBC News averaged 1.4 million A25-54 viewers on Thursday, outperforming both ABC (+23%) and CBS (+46%). In A18-49, NBC also topped ABC and CBS, averaging a 1.1 rating, beating ABC by +32% and CBS by +48%.
NBC News was also the most-watched broadcast network for the first three nights of the GOP convention. A combined 7.5 million people watched NBC News and MSNBC from 10-11:45p hour on Thursday night.
NBC was the only network to grow across the board from night four of the 2012 Republican National Convention. The fourth night of the 2016 convention represented a +29% increase in total viewers, a +35% increase in A25-54 and a +34% increase in A18-49.
Lester Holt anchored NBC News’s primetime coverage of the Republican National Convention, joined by Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd. NBC News correspondent Tom Brokaw and political commentator Nicolle Wallace also contributed. Holt will anchor NBC News’s primetime coverage of the 2016 Democratic National Convention starting Monday, July 25.
July 18 – July 21, 2016:
| Total Viewers | A25-54 Rating | A25-54 Viewers | A18-49 Rating | A18-49 Viewers | |
| NBC | 4.596 | 1.43 | 1.702 | 1.07 | 1.354 |
| CBS | 3.013 | 0.77 | 0.916 | 0.57 | 0.717 |
| ABC | 3.124 | 0.93 | 1.102 | 0.66 | 0.835 |
July 21, 2016:
| Total Viewers | A25-54 Rating | A25-54 Viewers | A18-49 Rating | A18-49 Viewers | |
| NBC | 4.587 | 1.49 | 1.766 | 1.09 | 1.385 |
| CBS | 3.809 | 1.02 | 1.209 | 0.74 | 0.939 |
| ABC | 3.861 | 1.20 | 1.431 | 0.83 | 1.052 |
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ABOUT NBC NEWS
More Americans watch NBC News than any news organization in the world. NBC News is a global leader in news across all broadcast and digital platforms. Its leading and award-winning television news broadcasts include NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, TODAY, Meet the Press, and Dateline, as well as primetime specials and breaking news reports. The rapidly-growing NBC News Digital Group, along with the SiriusXM TODAY Show Radio channel, provide continuous content to consumers wherever they are, whenever they want it. NBC News also operates Peacock Productions, an award-winning in-house production company, and the NBC NewsChannel affiliate news service.
NBC News is part of the NBCUniversal News Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast Corporation. For more information about NBCUniversal, please visit www.NBCUniversal.com.
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For more information contact:
Jake Urbanski
NBC News
212-664-3211
