In the battle of Friday night newsmagazines, it was Dateline NBC that topped ABC’s 20/20 across the board for the second quarter of 2017. After ceding the first quarter of 2017 to its Friday night newsmagazine rival, Dateline averaged 4.557 million total viewers, 1.48 million A25-54 viewers and 1.14 million A18-49 viewers in Q2. Dateline’s wins in total viewers and A25-54 are its largest margins of victory since 2010. Its Q2 win in A18-49 is the largest since 2003.
Versus the same quarter last year, Dateline Friday was up +2 percent in total viewers (+83,000), but -8 percent in A25-54 and -4 percent in A18-49. 20/20, on the other hand, was down double digits in total viewers, A25-54 and A18-49.
The averages for Q2 2017:
- Total Viewers: NBC: 4.557 M / ABC: 3.698 M
- A25-54 viewers: NBC: 1.480 M / ABC: 1.269 M
- A18-49 viewers: NBC: 1.135 M / ABC: 955 K
20/20 managed to end the second quarter on a high note. The June 23rd episode investigated the unknown details of Otto Warmbier’s death after being detained in North Korea for 17 months. It was last Friday night’s No. 1 show in the key demo categories and topped Dateline in total viewers (4.7 million versus 4.3 million).