'NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams' Delivers Biggest 4th Quarter Audience In Nine Years

“NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” was America’s #1 newscast in total viewers and all key demos for the week of December 22-28, 2014, according to Nielsen Media Research data. The NBC broadcast has now been #1 among demo viewers A25-54 for 4 straight weeks and in 6 of the past 8 weeks. 

For the fourth quarter of 2014, Nightly was #1 in total viewers, rating A25-54, and rating A18-49. The NBC broadcast averaged 9.111 million total viewers, leading ABC by +7% (+628,000) and CBS by +30% (+2.098 million).  This marks Nightly’s best 4Q total viewer delivery in 9 years and its biggest 4Q advantage over CBS in three years.  Nightly has now been #1 in total viewers for 29 consecutive quarters and 59 of the last 61 quarters.

Week of 12/22 -- Growth:

 

    Nightly has widened its total viewer and A25-54 viewer leads over the competition in each of the last 2 weeks.

    Versus the same week last year, Nightly posted gains in total viewers (+8%, or +705,000), A18-49 viewers (+1%, or +13,000) and A25-54 viewers (+2%, or +46,000).

    Nightly was the only evening newscast to improve its deliveries across-the-board vs. 4Q’14/STD levels in total viewers (+4%, or +329,000), A18-49 viewers (+4%, or +61,000), and A25-54 (+2%, or +41,000).

    Compared to the 4Q’14/STD average, Nightly widened its leads over ABC in both total viewers (by 71%) and A18-49 viewers (by 80%).

    Nightly has increased its total viewer audience by +2% (+164,000) versus the same STD period last year, posting its best start to a season in 9 years (since the 2005-06 season).

Weekly Highlights:

 

    Nightly averaged 9.430 million total viewers, +13% (+1.054 million) ahead of ABC World News Tonight and +29% (+2.128 million) more than CBS Evening News.

    This represents Nightly’s best total viewer delivery in three weeks and its largest win over ABC since the week of 6/9/2014.

    In total viewers, the NBC broadcast outperformed ABC by at least 500,000 viewers and CBS by at least 2 million viewers for the 9th straight week.

    Nightly has been #1 in total viewers for 276 consecutive weeks and in 323 of the last 324 weeks.

    Nightly averaged 2.162 million A25-54 viewers, leading ABC by +5% (+98,000) and CBS by +34% (+546,000).

    Nightly delivered a 1.8 A25-54 rating, +6% (+1 tenth) more than ABC and +29% (+4 tenths) more than CBS.

    Nightly has posted at least a tie for #1 in rating A25-54 in 9 of the last 12 weeks.

    Nightly averaged 1.610 million A18-49 viewers, outperforming ABC by +16% (+221,000) and CBS by +46% (+508,000).

    Nightly delivered a 1.3 A18-49 rating, +18% (+2 tenths) more than ABC and +44% (+4 tenths) ahead of CBS.

WEEK OF DECEMBER 22-28, 2014
     Total Viewers    A25-54 Rating    A25-54 Viewers    A18-49 Rating    A18-49 Viewers
NBC    9.430    1.8    2.162    1.3    1.610
CBS    7.302    1.4    1.616    0.9    1.102
ABC    8.376    1.7    2.064    1.1    1.389

SOURCE: NBC News