A day after moderating the first presidential debate, NBC’s Lester Holt was handed a rare loss for his Nightly News broadcast last week. ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir edged Nightly News by 167,000 viewers, or 2 percent. The last time ABC won a week in September was the week of Sept. 7, 2009, the week after Charlie Gibson announced his retirement from the show. Holt was off Nightly Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (and last night) prepping for the debate.
Nightly News still won the demo winning by +11 percent over ABC. Compared to the same week last year CBS Evening News was up in both measurements: +2 percent in viewers and up +8 percent in the demo. ABC was up +4 percent in viewers but down in the demo. NBC was down in both.
Preliminary numbers for last’s Nightly News, airing before the debate, show Nightly News averaged 9.724 million total viewers, a half million more than World News Tonight.
Due to Thursday Night Football, CBS Evening News is based on 4 days (Mon-Wed and Fri).
Numbers for the week of Sept. 19, 2016:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,010,000 | 8,177,000 | 6,692,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,973,000 | 1,773,000 | 1,530,000 |