“NBC Nightly News” Tops Competition During Final Week of August

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014 – “NBC Nightly News” continued as America’s most-watched evening newscast for the week ending August 29, 2014, according to Nielsen Media Research data. Nightly delivered its widest total viewer advantage of the week on the night of Diane Sawyer’s final broadcast, Wednesday, August 27 (7.710 mil vs. 7.451 mil).

NOTE: Nightly was retitled on Monday due to NBC’s live broadcast of the Emmy Awards and is based on a 4-day average (Tue-Fri). Brian Williams was off all week.

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 +490,000 total viewers (+6%) and widening its advantage over ABC by +28%. This season, Nightly has also widened its gaps over CBS by 9% in total viewers and 2% among A25-54 viewers. 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 (+936,000) since the 2011-12 season.

Weekly Highlights:

• Nightly delivered 7.423 million viewers, leading ABC World News by +40,000 and CBS Evening News by +1,307,000.
• Nightly has won in total viewers for 259 consecutive weeks, and in 306 of the past 307 weeks.
• Nightly averaged a 1.4 A25-54 rating, +2 tenths over CBS.
• Among A25-54 (000), Nightly averaged 1.671 million viewers, topping CBS by +223,000.

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