In the battle of Friday night newsmagazines, it was Dateline NBC that topped ABC’s 20/20 across the board for the second quarter of 2018.
This comes just weeks after 20/20 announced that it had won the 2018-2019 broadcast television season over its NBC rival, lifted in part by a victory in Q1 2019.
Dateline averaged nearly 3.6 million total viewers, (+11% more than ABC), 1 million A25-54 viewers (+3% more than ABC) and 728,000 A18-49 viewers (+8% more than ABC) in Q2 2019, marking the show’s third consecutive Q2 win.
Despite winning in all relevant measurements, –both Q2 2019 and May 2019 sweeps– Dateline posted losses from Q2 2018 among total viewers (-13%), adults 25-54 (-17%) and 18-49 (-17%). The program aired from 10-11 p.m. ET in Q2 2019, whereas it aired from 9 – 11 p.m. ET in Q2 of last year.
The opposite was true for 20/20. The ABC program, despite finishing behind Dateline in Q2, actually posted year-over-year growth among total viewers (+11%), adults 25-54 (+14%) and 18-49 (+4%). 20/20 aired from 10 – 11 p.m. ET in Q2 2018, but expanded to a two-hour format (9-11 p.m. ET) at the start of this year.
The averages for Q2 2019 (Nielsen Live+SD data):
- Total Viewers: NBC: 3,580,000 / ABC: 3,223,000
- A25-54 viewers: NBC: 1,002,000 / ABC: 973,000
- A18-49 viewers: NBC: 728,000 / ABC: 675,000