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How’s NBC’s ‘Nightly News’ Doing Without Brian Williams?

Mar 10, 2015  •  Post A Comment

After two weeks without Brian Williams in the anchor chair on “NBC Nightly News,” viewership numbers appear to indicate that he’s not missed.

Deadline.com reports that the program, with Lester Holt filling in for Williams, wrapped up its second week in first place in total viewers and all of the important demos.

“NBC’s broadcast delivered its widest total-viewer margins over both ABC and CBS in four weeks,” the story reports. “That makes it Holt’s best advantage over ABC’s ‘World News Tonight with David Muir’ since Holt began filling in for Williams. (Holt did not beat the advantage scored by Williams over ABC’s newscast in his last week on the air before being suspended as the news division investigates claims he made while covering various news events for the division.)”

The report notes that Savannah Guthrie filled in for Holt on Monday’s program last week.

For the week, “Nightly News” averaged 2.391 million viewers in the key 25-54 news demo, topping ABC by 90,000 and CBS by 609,000. In the 18-49 demo, NBC averaged 1.709 million viewers, beating ABC by 174,000 and CBS by 485,000.

It was the eighth week out of the past nine at No. 1 in the news demo for “Nightly News,” the report notes.

Deadline adds: “In overall audience, ‘Nightly’s’ first-place status hit 285 consecutive weeks, and 328 of the last 329.”

The numbers for last week in total viewers show the NBC broadcast with 9.738 million, topping ABC by close to a half-million and CBS by more than 2 million.

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2 Comments

  1. Not surprised, Lester has a big base of loyal viewers. Smoothest transition…ever.

  2. Lester Holt is competent and professional. He has a quiet warmth that enhances his delivery without intruding on the message. I’m now back watching NBC nightly news!

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