ABC’s 20/20 topped Dateline NBC last night head-to-head.
ABC’s Diane Sawyer hosted the special 20/20 the culmination of 18 months of reporting traveling around the country investigating the vanishing American middle class.
Lester Holt hosted last night’s Dateline which featured an exit interview with Pres. Obama.
5.8 million watched 20/20 while 3.5 million tuned in for Dateline. ABC also took the younger demos winning A18-49 (1.1 rating / 4 share vs. 0.7/3) and A25-54 (1.6 rating / 5 share vs. 1.0/3). This was 20/20’s 3rd best performance of the 2016-2017 season. In the battle of the Friday night newsmagazines Dateline had been on a winning streak for most of 2016 regularly topping 20/20.
Both 20/20 and Dateline built on their 9 p.m. lead-ins, but Blue Bloods on CBS easily topped both newsmagazines at 10 p.m. drawing more than 10 million viewers.