The Labor Day Holiday, the U.S. Open, the NFL opener (Green Bay Packers 42 – New Orleans Saints 34) and the presidential address all put the three evening newscasts into an abridged week.
“NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” was #1 again, with a million Total Viewer lead over #2 “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.” Compared to the same week last year all three newscasts were up in both Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo.
The “World News’” weekly average is based on 4 days (Tue-Fri), while the weekly averages for both “Nightly News” (Tue, Wed, Fri) and “Evening News” (Tue, Wed, Thu) are based on 3 days. “CBS Evening News” was preempted on Labor Day and started late on Friday due to the U.S. Open Tennis tournament, while Thursday’s “Nightly News” is taken out of the average because of low coverage due to the Presidential Address to Congress or the Packers-Saints game.
Numbers for the week of Sept. 5:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,570,000 | 7,504,000 | 5,876,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,532,000 | 2,004,000 | 1,599,000 |