The Hollywood Reporter‘s Marisa Guthrie takes a behind-the-scenes look at “several ongoing ratings and personnel challenges” at NBC News. On the heels of “Today” and “Meet the Press” falling from the top spots in the ratings, ABC’s “World News” has been keeping NBC’s “Nightly News” in a tight race for the top spot in the A25-54 demographic, something that is not sitting well with the “Nightly” staff, according to THR:
Sources say Brian Williams, 55, has been rankled by the ratings slide. But NBC News senior vp Alexandra Wallace, who has oversight of Nightly News and Meet the Press, cites the shows’ growth among younger viewers. NBC News ratings crunchers apparently have narrowed the weakness to viewers at the older end of the 25-to-54 spectrum, specifically 45-to-54.
“Brian, like all of us who work on Nightly News, is less than happy about the one small demo issue we have and [we] are completely focused on correcting it,” Wallace tells THR. “We’re competitive people, so we want to win everywhere.”
AdvertisementOf course, the consensus at NBC News is that the horse race between Williams and Diane Sawyer won’t last. But World News executive producer Michael Corn begs to differ. “We’re growing,” he says. “To us, this is the very beginning of a long-range plan. It’s a nice start, but we have a long way to go.”