‘Nightly News’ streak ends
Without Brian Williams, the NBC broadcast falls behind ABC’s news program.
Evening news viewers are slowly coming around to the fact that Brian Williams is away and may not be back.
For the first time since Williams was suspended in early February, his broadcast “NBC Nightly News” finished second in the evening news ratings race, for the week of March 30 to April 3. “ABC World News Tonight With David Muir” won the week with 7.99 million viewers to NBC’s 7.91 million. “CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley” was third with 6.57 million.
The “World News” numbers end NBC’s streak of 288 consecutive weekly wins, which extends to Sept. 7, 2009. NBC executives said privately that they were not surprised that the broadcast, anchored by Lester Holt since Feb. 9, has experienced a gradual ratings slide as Williams’ fans are realizing that he’s away for a while.
They also noted that Williams’ still uncertain status has prevented the network from promoting the broadcast.
If “Nightly” remains in second place for an extended period, it will mark the first time in more than 20 years that none of NBC’s news franchises is in a leadership position. “Today” has been a distant second behind ABC’s “Good Morning America” since the end of the Winter Olympics in 2014. “Meet the Press” finished second in the first quarter of 2015.
Financially, a change in the competitive position of
“NBC Nightly News” won’t be significant unless ratings completely tank. In 2014, the difference in evening news ad revenue between firstplace NBC and third-place “CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley” amounted to $27 million in a total pie of $462 million, according to Kantar Media. NBC had a 35% share of that pie last year.
Season to date, “NBC Nightly News” is averaging 9.72 million viewers, down 219,000 compared with a year ago.” ABC World News Tonight” is averaging 8.77 million, a gain of 500,000.
The demand for ad time on “NBC Nightly News” has not been affected by Williams’ suspension and has been in line with the overall TV marketplace. “Advertisers have continued to support the broadcast,” an NBC spokesperson said.
NBC News, acknowledging the second-place finish, expressed support for Holt. He took over for Williams once he was forced to give up the anchor chair after making false statements regarding his 2003 coverage of the United States’ invasion of Iraq.
“Lester Holt has led ‘NBC Nightly News’ to great success over the past two months, and we are pleased with his strong performance during this time,” the network said in a statement.
Williams is being benched for at least six months, unless new NBC News Chairman Andy Lack decides to bring him back sooner. His return will be considered once an internal review of his work is completed.
NBC’s loss comes after the network removed the additional audience it was getting from second airings of “NBC Nightly News” in the overnight hours on stations in 12% of the U.S. The overnight broadcasts were included in the weekly average, which is permitted by audience measurement service Nielsen. That boosted the “Nightly News” audience by about 70,000 viewers.
Advertising agencies who bought time on “Nightly News” expressed unhappiness that they were being charged for the overnight viewers when their intent was to reach those watching in the evening.
The decision to give “Nightly News” a second airing overnight was made in September in anticipation of the arrival of ABC News anchor David Muir, who demonstrated his viewer appeal as the primary substitute for Diane Sawyer. Muir’s broadcast was catching up to “NBC Nightly News” even before the controversy that led to Williams’ removal.
Judy Muller, a former ABC News correspondent and professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, said she did not expect a rapid shift of viewers away from NBC because Holt “has a lot of respect in the journalism community.” Muller believes that the anchor matters less to evening news viewers these days.
“I think these shows no longer depend on one person,” she said.
But ABC is making viewers think about the circumstances of Williams’ departure.
While Williams is under fire for the factuality of his reporting from the field, including his broadcasts from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, ABC has a new promotional campaign showing Muir traveling to crisis zones all over the world. It closes with the line “He reports to you.”