As NBC’s Brian Williams goes under the knife today to replace his right knee, his evening newscast is back on top in both ratings measurements.
The week earlier, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” broke the “NBC Nightly News” 243-week winning streak among younger viewers. For the week of July 29, “Nightly” edged “World News” by 68,000 viewers (or 4%), despite the ABC show winning three nights last week: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Compared to the same week last year, which included the first week of the London Summer Games, “Nightly” was down dramatically: -31% in viewers and down -43% in the demo. The year-ago week saw NBC, which has the rights to the Olympics, experience its best-ever total viewer advantage over both ABC and CBS.
“World News” saw year-over-year growth: +2% in viewers and +6% in the demo, while “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” grew among total viewers (+5%) but was down -11% in the demo.
Signing off “Nightly News” last night, Williams said, “I will see you back here before long equipped with the newest factory-produced right knee at all the networks.”
Numbers for the week of July 29, 2013:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,490,000 | 6,960,000 | 5,798,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,909,000 | 1,841,000 | 1,443,000 |