ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” has overtaken “NBC Nightly News” in the younger demo for the week of Feb. 16, with a +17,000 viewer lead. “NBC Nightly News,” with Lester Holt in the anchor chair, won in total viewers with a +416,000 viewer lead.
With Brian Williams‘s suspension in its second week, both “World News Tonight” and the “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” are seeing strong week-to-week and year-to-year growth. ABC was up the most in the A25-54 demo week-to-week (+14%) while CBS was up the most in viewers (+11%). “Nightly News” was up +7% in viewers and up +11% in the demo vs. the week prior.
When compared to the same week last year both ABC and CBS are up double digits, while NBC is down slightly. It should be noted this week last year was the second week of the Sochi Olympics which aired on NBC.
ABC’s growth may be less about the anchor change at “Nightly News” and more a part of an ongoing trend. “World News Tonight” took the A25-54 demo in Q4 2014, and season-to-date, ABC is up more than a half million viewers each night, compared to last season.
Numbers for the week of Feb. 16, 2015:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 10,103,000 | 9,687,000 | 8,497,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,554,000 | 2,571,000 | 2,025,000 |