NBC NEWS “FOUR” THE WIN AGAIN IN 2019:
TODAY, NBC NIGHTLY NEWS AND MEET THE PRESS ARE #1 FOR FOUR STRAIGHT YEARS
Four Years in a Row Following Four Seasons in a Row
December 19, 2019 – NBC News’ TODAY, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and Meet the Press with Chuck Todd close out 2019 at #1 in the key A25-54 and A18-49 demos for the fourth straight year, according to Nielsen Media Research. This ratings achievement comes on the heels of all three shows winning four broadcast seasons in a row.
NBC News also sets a record-breaking year with over 275 exclusive investigative reports broken by the Investigative and Political Units and over 175 exclusive interviews booked across the network – all which have propelled the network to another ratings banner year.
TODAY
- TODAY wins the key A25-54 news demo for the fourth consecutive year and A18-49 for the 28th straight year.
- The morning broadcast finished out 2019 with another perfect year, outperforming ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS This Morning across both demos all 12 months.
- Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb have anchored TODAY for two straight years alongside Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Carson Daly.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt
- Nightly News is the #1 most-watched evening newscast among A25-54 for 12 straight years and A18-49 viewers for 23 years in a row.
- The newscast posts its best key A25-54 demo advantage vs. CBS Evening News in eight years and biggest total viewers advantage in multiple years.
- This past year, Nightly News launched a criminal justice reform series, “Justice for All,” which has evolved into a network-wide initiative led by Holt. And Holt, who was honored with the prestigious 2019 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism from the Walter Cronkite School at Arizona State University, got rare access inside Iran for a special edition of Nightly News.
Meet the Press with Chuck Todd
- Meet the Press is #1 across the board for the 2nd straight year, outpacing all other Sunday morning public affairs programs in A25-54, A18-49 and total viewers.
- The show also wins in total viewers for the second year in a row, topping the competition for all four quarters this year.
- The program beats ABC’s This Week and CBS’ Face the Nation in A25-54 by double digits for the fourth straight year and leads them in A18-49 for the fifth consecutive year.
- In the influential D.C. market, Meet the Press has won every single Sunday for over four years (since 3/22/2015).
- This year marks five years with Chuck Todd at the helm of Meet the Press and saw the launch of the NBC News’ year-long “County to County” project highlighting five pivotal counties in the upcoming 2020 election.
NBC News Special Reports
- NBC News, MSNBC and Telemundo hosted the first Democratic debate of the 2020 cycle and made history with 18.1 million viewers and 5.3 million in A25-54 on the second night, making it the most-watched Democratic debate ever.
- NBC News’ coverage of the 2019 State of the Union and post-speech analysis won across the board across the broadcast networks for the second consecutive year.
- Ranked #1 among all television networks in the key A25-54 and younger A18-49 demos for coverage of both the Mueller testimony and for the first five days of the impeachment hearings.
- The Specials Unit produced over 90 NBC News Special Reports this year with over 90 hours, in addition to the first Democratic debate of the 2020 election.
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Year-End Nielsen Ratings Charts:
|
A25-54 (000) |
A18-49 (000) |
P2+ (000) | |
| TODAY | 1,246 | 893 | 3,827 |
| GOOD MORNING AMERICA | 1,136 | 790 | 3,908 |
| CBS THIS MORNING | 771 | 536 | 2,972 |
|
A25-54 (000) |
A18-49 (000) |
P2+ (000) | |
| NBC NIGHTLY NEWS | 1,687 | 1,151 | 7,772 |
| ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT | 1,680 | 1,142 | 8,547 |
| CBS EVENING NEWS | 1,106 | 794 | 5,666 |
|
A25-54 (000) |
A18-49 (000) |
P2+ (000) | |
| MEET THE PRESS | 779 | 553 | 3,257 |
| THIS WEEK | 656 | 445 | 2,783 |
| FACE THE NATION | 647 | 457 | 3,026 |
| FOX NEWS SUNDAY | 363 | 267 | 1,298 |
Source: Nielsen Media Research, LS, 12/31/2018-12/15/2019 with two weeks remaining in the broadcast year; NBC News programs vs. respective competitive sets; regularly-titled telecasts only, excluding specials and breakouts. Evening newscasts include 3:30P West Coast airings for ABC and overnight airings in selected markets for all three networks.
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NBC NEWS
More Americans watch NBC News than any news organization in the world. Its leading and award-winning television news broadcasts include TODAY, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, Dateline NBC, Third Hour of TODAY, TODAY with Hoda and Jenna and Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist, as well as primetime specials and breaking news reports. The rapidly-growing NBC News Digital Group, including its streaming news service NBC News NOW, along with the SiriusXM TODAY Show Radio channel, provides 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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NBC News contact:
Ali Zelenko
212-664-6677
