NIGHTLINE Takes Opening Week of Season in Total Viewers

ABC News' "Nightline" won the opening week of the 2014-15 season in Total Viewers (1.780 million) during the week of September 22, 2014, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. "Nightline" outperformed CBS' "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" by 271,000 Total Viewers and NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" by 282,000 Total Viewers. In fact, "Nightline" outdrew the NBC program by its largest-ever Total Viewer advantage during a week of originals.

"Nightline" improved on its year-ago premiere week performance (1.571 million, 686,000 and 516,000, respectively, for September 23, 2013) across all key target demos: Total Viewers (+13%), Adults 25-54 (+2%) and Adults 18-49 (+5%). In fact, "Nightline" drew the Net's largest overall opening week audience in the time slot in 9 years - since w/o 9/19/05 of the 2005-06 season.

"Nightline" saw double-digit increases week to week (1.510 million, 621,000 and 449,000, respectively on w/o 9/15/14) in Total Viewers (+18%), Adults 25-54 (+13%) and Adults 18-49 (+21%). In fact, "Nightline" drew its largest overall audience in nearly 2 years and best key adults performances in over 3 months - since w/o 11/26/12 and w/o 6/9/14, respectively.

"Nightline" claimed the No. 1 telecast of premiere week in Total Viewers (2.244 million) and Adults 25-54 (918,000) with its Thursday airing (9/25/14), beating every telecast of the week of CBS' "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" and NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers." Head to head, "Nightline" outperformed the NBC program on Thursday with its largest-ever, single-day margins in both Total Viewers (+ 1.015 million - 2.244 million vs. 1.229 million) and Adults 25-54 (+391,000 - 918,000 vs. 527,000), based on original episodes.

In addition, the Thursday airing stands as "Nightline's" top telecast in Total Viewers in over 5 months and best in Adults 25-54 in 3 months - since 4/17/14 and 6/5/14, respectively.

ABC News' "Nightline" is anchored by Dan Harris, Dan Abrams, and Juju Chang. Roxanna Sherwood is executive producer, and Steven Baker is Senior Broadcast Producer. The program airs weeknights from 12:35-1:00 a.m., ET on the ABC Television Network. Together with "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Nightline" is part of ABC's winning late night strategy of airing news and entertainment programming.

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