Lester Holt gives NBC Nightly News another across-the-board win for the week of Sept. 7. All three broadcasts were down single digits vs. the same week last year among total viewers. NBC was down -4 percent, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was down -5 percent and the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley was down -1 percent. CBS and ABC were also down in the demo, while NBC was flat.
No. 3 CBS has improved its position with both NBC and ABC cutting the viewership gap with Nightly News by 310,000 viewers and with World News Tonight by 360,000 viewers vs. last year. Due to the Labor Day holiday and NFL season opener, NBC is based on a 3-day average (Tue, Wed, Fri) while ABC and CBS are based on 4-day averages (Tues-Fri).
We looked deeper into the numbers and what it means for two broadcasts when a third is pre-empted in many markets (as Nightly News was last Thursday). ABC added 699,000 viewers Thursday night over its average for the rest of the week, while CBS added 680,000 viewers Thursday over its average for the rest of the week.
Numbers for the week of Sept. 7, 2015:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,231,000 | 7,791,000 | 6,255,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,008,000 | 1,858,000 | 1,381,000 |