Dateline NBC and ABC’s 20/20 split the Friday newsmagazine ratings race during the November 2020 sweeps period.
Dateline earned a November sweeps victory over 20/20 in average total viewers, with more than 3.6 million, according to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen. That marks 7 consecutive sweeps that the NBC Friday newsmagazine has averaged a larger total audience than its ABC counterpart. According to live-plus-same-day data, Dateline NBC is currently -22% in total viewers in the November 2020 sweeps period vs. the prior November sweeps period, but still managed to eek out a victory in the measurement.
ABC’s 20/20, according to most current Nielsen data, is -12% in total viewers from the November 2019 sweeps period.
It’s important to note that the November 2019 ratings we’re citing are from live-plus-7-day data, a traditional metric for measuring prime time TV programming; whereas, the numbers below are based on the most current data (Nielsen live-plus-same-day), which does not yet include live-plus-7. The year-over-year trend will likely shift as additional data for November 2020 sweeps rolls in, and we’ll make the necessary adjustments to this post as needed.
Dateline, which remains ahead of 20/20 across the board year-to-date, didn’t dominate 20/20 in November, as it did back in February. 20/20 averaged more viewers than Dateline in November 2020 from the key entertainment and news programming demos, adults 18-49 and 25-54, respectively.
20/20 beat Dateline in the aforementioned demos the previous November, but the program managed to expand its lead significantly this month, especially in A18-49, where 20/20 will end up being at least+5% from Nov. 2019, and Dateline NBC is presently -6% in the measurement, year-over-year.
November 2020 Sweep:
Network | Total Viewers | P25-54 | P18-49 |
ABC | 3,532,000 | 998,000 | 721,000 |
NBC | 3,649,000 | 948,000 | 645,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, Most Current. Sweeps based on Live + Same Day: November 2020 Sweep (10/29 – 11/21/25). Total Viewers, Adults 25-54, Adults 18-49. Average audience based on regularly-titled telecasts. / November 2019 Sweep (10/31 – 11/27/19) based on Live+7 Nielsen data. Total Viewers, Adults 25-54, Adults 18-49. Average audience based on regularly-titled telecasts.