“NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” Widens Lead Over ABC For Second Straight Week

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 – “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” continued as America’s most-watched evening newscast for the week ending September 12, 2014, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

Nightly averaged 8.554 million total viewers and 2.013 viewers A25-54, marking its largest audiences in both categories in over four months (since week of 4/28/14).

Compared to the previous week, Nightly widened its total viewer leads versus ABC by +11% and over CBS by +15%. Nightly posted the largest week-to-week gain in total viewers (+83,000) while also increasing deliveries among A18-49 and A25-54 viewers (+2% each).

Versus the same week last season, Nightly posted growth among younger viewers 18-49 (+1%), while ABC dropped -3%.

Weekly Highlights:

• Nightly delivered 8.554 million viewers, leading ABC World News by +228,000 and CBS Evening News by +2,278,000.
• This represents Nightly’s biggest total viewer audience since the week of 4/28/2014 and biggest gap versus CBS in three months (since week of 6/9/2014).
• On Monday, Nightly averaged 10.267 million total viewers — its largest single-day audience since 3/3/2014.
• Nightly has won in total viewers for 261 consecutive weeks, and in 308 of the past 309 weeks.
• Among A25-54 (000), Nightly averaged 2.013 million viewers, topping CBS by +406,000.
• Nightly averaged a 1.7 A25-54 rating, +4 tenths over CBS.
• This marks Nightly’s biggest demo audience since the week of 4/28/14 and best W/A25-54 ratings since the week of 6/9/2014.
• Among A18-49, Nightly delivered 1.497 million viewers, topping ABC by +101,000 and CBS by +344,000.
• Nightly averaged a 1.2 A18-49 rating, topping ABC by +1 tenth and CBS by +3 tenths.

Comparisons:

• Versus the same week last season, Nightly increased in total viewers (+3%, or +250,000), rating M18-49 (+11%), and rating M25-54 (+7%).
• Versus its 3Q’14 average, Nightly posted double-digit across-the-board gains in total viewers (+10%, or +764,000), rating W/M/A18-49 (+17%/+11%/+20%), and rating W/M/A25-54 (+12%/+15%/+13%).

Season-to-date:

• Nightly is the #1 evening newscast in total viewers and all 18-49 and 25-54 demo ratings.
• Nightly continues to post the biggest season-to-season growth among the national evening newscasts, increasing +488,000 total viewers (+6%) and widening its advantages over ABC by +27% and CBS by +8%.
• Season-to-date, Nightly is posting its biggest total viewer audience in 8 years (since the 2005-06 season) and its largest lead over ABC (+911,000) since the 2011-12 season.

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