“NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” wins the week and the just-completed first quarter of 2014.
Compared to the same week last year all three newscasts saw significant growth. “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” was up the most in viewers: +19%, also up +14% in the demo. “Nightly News” was also up +14% in the demo and up +15% in viewers. “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” was up +8% in viewers and up +13% in the demo.
For the second straight week, “Nightly” topped “World News” by over 1 million viewers, meanwhile, “Evening News” closed the viewer deficit with “World News” by more than half a million viewers, compared to the same week last year. And with Sawyer’s interview with Gov. Chris Christie, “World News” was No. 1 in the demo Thursday, leading “Nightly” by +47,000 viewers.
Due to live coverage of NCAA basketball, CBS’s ratings are based on a three-day average (Mon-Wed). ABC and NBC are based on five days.
For the first quarter of 2014, with a boost from the Sochi Olympics, “Nightly News” saw the most total viewer growth: up +12% vs. Q1 2013. “World News” had the most demo viewer growth, up +10%. “Nightly” was also up in the demo +6% while “World News” was up the same amount in viewers. “World News” had its best performance in total viewers in six years and in the A25-54 Demo in three years in the quarter. “Evening News” was up +9% in viewers vs. Q1 2013 and flat in the demo.
Numbers for Q1, 2014:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,314,000 | 8,264,000 | 7,114,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,244,000 | 2,087,000 | 1,815,000 |