ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ Wins Olympics Week In Total Viewers; ‘NBC Nightly News’ Dominates Demo

ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ Wins Olympics Week In Total Viewers; ‘NBC Nightly News’ Dominates Demo

ABC News’ World News Tonight with David Muir ranked as the No. 1 evening newscast in Total Viewers during an Olympics week for the first time in more than 25 years. Last time that happened was the week of August 3, 1992 – Week 2 of the 1992 Summer Olympics.

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The week of February 12, ABC’s evening newscast out delivered Olympics-broadcaster’s NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt the week, based on Live + Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. Muir’s telecast clocked 9.01M viewers, besting Holt’s 8.48M, as well as Jeff Glor-anchored CBS Evening News‘ 6.67M.

But NBC’s newscast continued to dominate in the 25-54 age bracket that is the currency of news programming ad sales. NBC averaged a 1.8 rating and 2.14M viewers in the demographic, outstripping ABC’s 1.6 rating and 1.96M viewers, as well as CBS’s 1.2 rating and 1.43M viewers. This despite airing at 3:30 PM on the West Coast during the Games. NBC’s newscast is enjoying its longest demo winning streak in more than four years, clocking the highest year-over-year growth in the news demographic.

The week of February 12, NBC News did not did not re-title its broadcast any night, as the news division had done previous week on the Friday of this Winter Olympics’ Opening Ceremonies, and the Thursday night before the Opening Ceremonies.

For this Olympics, coming from South Korea, NBC is airing competition live across the country and NBC Nightly News is airing simultaneously on both coasts at 6:30 PM ET.

Heading into the Olympics, ABC’s evening news had the total-viewer momentum. Prior to the week of February 12, World News Tonight had topped in total viewers 16 of 20 weeks in the season and, season to date, ABC’s program leads NBC’s in overall audience by its biggest advantage since the 1995-96 season.