“NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” wins the first week of 2012. But the broadcast lost a million viewers compared to the same week last year but held a million viewer lead over “World News with Diane Sawyer,” also down -450,000 viewers vs. last year.
Compared to the same week last year only the “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” was up in both Total Viewers and younger viewers: +5% in both measurements. #3 “Evening News” came within 89,000 viewers of #2 “World News” in the younger demo, while the ABC broadcast cut its gaps with #1 “Nightly News” -37% in Total Viewers and -23% in younger viewers. On Monday “World News” topped “Nightly News” by +560,000 viewers. ABC stations had the benefit of the Outback Bowl, which ended at 5:15pmET, as the lead-in.
“Nightly” and “World News” are based on 5-days while “Evening News” is based on a 4-day average (Tuesday-Friday).
Numbers for the week of January 2, 2012:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,900,000 | 7,970,000 | 6,646,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,564,000 | 2,100,000 | 2,011,000 |