Dateline has been out-delivering Friday night newsmagazine rival 20/20 in the ratings department in recent sweeps periods. The NBC Friday prime time staple continued its hot streak in November 2017.
Dateline defeated 20/20 across the board for the third straight sweeps period, posting its largest margin of a victory in total viewers for a November sweeps period since 2002.
The program averaged 5 million total viewers in November, compared to 20/20’s 2.2 million total viewer delivery. That’s a +82 percent margin.
Dateline’s 5 million viewer average is +5 percent from the November 2016 sweeps period, while 20/20’s 2.2 million viewer average represents a double digit decline for the program versus the previous November.
Dateline also out-performed its July 2017 sweeps averages, which isn’t a total shock considering people are more likely to be out and about on Friday nights in July than they are in November.
The newsmagazine was +10 percent in total viewers, +16 percent in the traditional A25-54 news demo and +12 percent among adults 18-49 in November versus July 2017 sweeps.
The averages for November 2017 Sweeps:
- Total Viewers: NBC: 5.0 M / ABC: 2.2 M
- A25-54 viewers: NBC: 1.6 M / ABC: 925 k
- A18-49 viewers: NBC: 1.2 M / ABC: 679 k
Dateline’s most-watched episode for November was the Josh Mankiewicz-reported Secrets in Silver Lakes, which aired on Nov. 3rd and drew 5.5 million total viewers.