Q3 2008 Ratings: MTP’s 44 Consecutive

By SteveK 

For the 44th consecutive quarter, Meet the Press was the most watched Sunday morning public affairs program.

The NBC show averaged 3,732,000 Total Viewers, compared to 2,696,000 for ABC’s This Week, 2,592,000 for CBS’ Face the Nation and 1,303,000 for FOX News Sunday.

MTP also had the bigger year-to-year gains than any other Sunday program in both Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo.

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Click continued to see the NBC release…


According to Nielsen Media Research data, “Meet
the Press” was the most-watched Sunday morning public affairs program,
winning its 44th consecutive quarter for 3Q’08. For 3Q’08, the program was
No. 1, averaging 3.732 million total viewers, +38 percent more (1,036,000)
than second place ABC’s “This Week” 2.696 million, a +44 percent advantage
(+1,140,000) over third place CBS’ “Face the Nation” 2.592 million and a
+186 percent lead (+2,429,000) over FOX News Sunday’s 1.303 million. “Meet
the Press” has now placed first in total viewers for 44 consecutive
quarters.

In homes nationally for 3Q’08, the NBC program placed first with a 2.7
rating and 8 share. ABC placed second with 2.0 rating and 6 share, CBS came
in third with 1.9 rating and 6 share and FOX placed fourth with a 1.0 and 3
share. “Meet the Press” has now placed first in households for 44
consecutive quarters, beating “This Week” by 35%, “Face the Nation” by 42%
and FOX by 170%.

Among adults 25-54 for 3Q’08, the NBC Sunday morning show was No. 1 with a
1.1 rating. ABC came in second with 0.8, CBS placed third with a 0.7, and
FOX came in last with a 0.4. In rating A25-54, “Meet the Press” topped ABC
by +38%, CBS by 57% and FOX by 175% — its best delivery in six years, since
3Q’02.

Year to year, “Meet the Press” posted double digit gains across the board
and had the biggest gains among the Sunday public affairs shows in every
category, widening its advantage over each of its competitors.

For the week ending Sunday, Sept. 28, the program averaged 3.508 million
total viewers, outperforming “This Week’s” 3.443 million by +2% (+65,000),
and FOX News Sunday’s 1.601 million by +119% (+1,907,000). In homes
nationally, “Meet the Press” tied CBS with 2.5 rating and 7 share, ABC came
in third with a 2.4 rating and 7 share and FOX placed last with 1.2 rating
and 3 share. The NBC program has now placed first in households for 103
straight weeks and 463 of the past 464 weeks (when everyone is at full
coverage). In adults 25-54, “Meet the Press” had a 0.9 rating, outperforming
FOX News Sunday by +80% (+4 tenths).

Last week’s guests were Former President Bill Clinton, Obama’s Chief
strategist David Axelrod and McCain’s Senior Strategist Steve Schmidt. In
addition, Colorado’s Rep. Mark Udall (D) squared off against Republican
opponent, former Rep. Bob Schaffer (R), for its first installment of its
award winning “Meet the Press Senate Debate Series.”

On its digital platforms, “Meet the Press” continued its strong performance
during the week ending September 27 with over 235,000 online streams and
more than 194,000 downloads. The “Meet the Press” video podcast (available
at www.mtp.msnbc.com) remains the top ranked network Sunday Morning program
podcast on iTunes.

Tom Brokaw is the interim moderator “Meet the Press.” Betsy Fischer is the
executive producer and Michelle Jaconi and Rebecca Samuels are the
producers.

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