Most-Watched Week in 9 Years for the Network Evening Newscasts

By Chris Ariens 

EveningNewsNewNearly 29 million people tuned in to the evening newscasts last week, making it the most-watched week in more than 9 years, since Jan. 17, 2005, when a combined 29.937 million tuned in during a week which included Pres. George W. Bush‘s second inauguration.

The most-recent high water mark was 28.460 million who watched during the week of January 31, 2011.

It was the most-watched week for both “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” and “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” since that week in 2011 which was the beginning of the uprising in Cairo.

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It was the most-watched week for “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” since Sept. 2006, the week Katie Couric debuted on that broadcast.

Williams and Pelley tied in year-over-year viewership growth: both up +14%. Sawyer was up the most among younger viewers, growing ABC’s audience by +19% vs. the same week last year.

Williams began anchoring from Sochi, Russia on Thursday. Ann Curry filled in during Williams’ travels on Wednesday. “Nightly” is down slightly versus the week before the Vancouver Olympics: down -1% in viewers and down -17% in the demo. But it was during that week in 2010, that “Nightly News” drew its biggest audience in 5 years.

Numbers for the week of February 3, 2014:

NBC ABC CBS
• Total Viewers: 10,973,000 9,491,000 8,522,000
• A25-54: 2,951,000 2,763,000 2,266,000

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