NBC NIGHTLY NEWS Sees Ratings Gains Without Suspended Anchor Brian Williams

Deadline reports that despite the absense of suspended anchor Brian Williams, NBC NIGHTLY NEWS has posted week-to-week gains in total viewers (up 7%, with 673,000 viewers), as well as in the news demo (11%, or 262,000 viewers), and among 18-49 year olds (up 9%, or 147,000 viewers) for the week of February 16.

Lester Holt took over the news desk after NBC News suspended Brian Williams for what his alleged false claims over his involvement in a war incident several years ago. Since that time, the broadcast has averaged more than 10 million viewers for the fourth time this season and became the only evening news program to surpass 10 million viewers during a broadcast week in the past eight years.

In addition, Holt's second full week of anchoring became America's most-watched evening newscast for the week, beating its lead over ABC by 5%, week to week. This brings its run of total-viewer wins to 283 consecutive weeks. The broadcast also brought in big numbers in the all-important younger demographic.