In Diane Sawyer’s final week, which was actually a half-week since her last day was Wednesday, “World News” came within 40,000 viewers of No. 1 “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,” with Lester Holt sitting in for the vacationing Williams.
That’s the closest ABC has come to NBC in 5 years, since the week of September 7, 2009, which was the last week ABC topped NBC in the total viewer measurement. Brian Williams has been on a winning streak since.
“World News” took the younger viewer demo for the eighth time in nine weeks, with a +272,000 lead on “Nightly,” its biggest gap in 7 years, since the week of July 2, 2007. Compared to the same week last year only “World News” showed growth.
NBC’s average is based on four days, with Monday excluded because of the Emmy awards. ABC and CBS are based on five days.
Numbers for the week of August 25, 2014:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,423,000 | 7,383,000 | 6,116,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,671,000 | 1,942,000 | 1,448,000 |