During the week that featured Brian Williams' exclusive interview with Edward Snowden, "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" was America's most-watched newscast in total viewers and all key demos.
According to Nielsen Media Research data for the week ending May 30, 2014, Nightly widened its total viewer gap over
ABC by +73% compared to the previous week. Week-to-week, Nightly also saw the biggest increases in total viewers (+3%, or +257,000) and A25-54 viewers (+12%, or +214,000) and was the only evening newscast to deliver growth among A18-49 viewers (+139,000).
Compared to the same week last season, Nightly posted the largest total viewer increase (+6%, or +455,000) among the evening newscasts while also seeing gains in rating M18-49 (+11%) and M25-54 (+7%).
Season-to-date, Nightly is posting its biggest total viewer audience (9.210 million) since the 2005-06 season and its largest advantage over
ABC (+1.081 million) since the 2009-10 season. Nightly continues to demonstrate the largest total viewer growth this season among the evening newscasts, gaining +564,000 viewers (+7%) versus the same period last season and widening its lead over
ABC by +38%.
Nightly also remains the #1 evening newscast among A18-49 viewers, leading
ABC by +18% and
CBS by +44%.
Weekly Highlights:
Nightly delivered 8.107 million total viewers, +11% (+808,000) more than
ABC World News and +35% (+2,097,000) ahead of
CBS Evening News.
This represents Nightly's biggest advantage over
CBS in six weeks (since the week of 4/14/2014).
Nightly averaged a 1.7 A25-54 rating, leading
ABC by +6% (+1 tenth) and
CBS by +31% (+4 tenths).
Among A25-54 (000), Nightly averaged 2.004 million viewers, outperforming
ABC by +5% (+101,000) and
CBS by +32% (+491,000).
This marks Nightly's biggest demo viewer audience in 4 weeks (since the week of 4/28/2014) and biggest advantage versus
ABC since the week of 3/31/2014.
Nightly also widened its demo viewer lead over
CBS by +43% week-to-week.
Nightly averaged a 1.2 A18-49 rating, +9% (+1 tenth) more than
ABC and +50% (+4 tenths) ahead of CBS.
In A18-49 viewers, Nightly averaged 1.496 million viewers, leading
ABC by +12% (+157,000) and
CBS by +45% (+465,000).
Trends:
Nightly has won in total viewers for 246 consecutive weeks, and in 293 of the past 294 weeks.
Nightly has been #1 in A25-54 rating for 290 of the past 291 weeks.
Nightly has been #1 in A18-49 rating for 303 consecutive weeks.
NOTE: all three evening newscasts are based on a four-day average due to the Memorial Day holiday.
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS WITH BRIAN WILLIAMS
"NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" is America's most-watched evening newscast, going beyond the day's headlines to uncover stories of how people's lives are affected by the world around them. "NBC Nightly News" reaches nearly 10 million people every day through its broadcast and millions more through NBCNews.com, the "Nightly News" app, and social media platforms. Brian Williams is the anchor and managing editor and Patrick Burkey is the executive producer.
