The Fourth of July holiday week was not kind to the network evening newscasts. All three were down week-to-week, NBC & ABC both down more than 600K Total Viewers. Last week was also the lowest ever Total Viewer and A25-54 delivery for World News with Charles Gibson since the start of People Meters. World News was down 8% year-to-year, while Nightly News with Brian Williams was up 8% year-to-year.
Gibson anchored all five nights last week; Katie Couric anchored her broadcast Mon-Wed, Harry Smith was in on Thursday and Russ Mitchell on Friday. And on NBC, Williams anchored Mon-Wed with Lester Holt subbing on Thursday and Friday.
NBC Nightly News had a different title on Thursday due to Wimbledon Tennis coverage and wasn’t included in the average. All three broadcasts were labeled as specials on Friday for the July 4th holiday.
Total Viewers: NBC: 7,376,000 / ABC: 6,885,000 / CBS: 5,571,000
25-54 demo: NBC: 2,248,000 / ABC: 2,021,000 / CBS: 1,655,000
25-54 rating: NBC: 1.8/9 / ABC: 1.6/8 / CBS: 1.3/6
> More: When looked at as a 3-day week (excluding Thursday and Friday) World News is down 4% year-to-year. It’s the 4-day week (excluding Friday) that puts them down 8%.