NBC's NIGHTLY NEWS Widens Lead Over ABC in Total Viewers

As major news surrounding the search and investigation into Malaysia Airlines flight 370 continued to unfold, more Americans turned to "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" than any other newscast.

According to Nielsen Media Research data for the week ending March 23, 2014, the NBC broadcast averaged over 9.3 million total viewers -- topping ABC by over 1 million and CBS by over 2 million. Week to week, Nightly widened its lead over ABC in both total viewers and the key demo A25-54.

Compared to the same week last year, Nightly posted growth in both total viewers (+12%) and the key demo A25-54 (+6%) - the most growth of the three network evening newscasts.

Season-to-date, Nightly is averaging the largest total viewer growth year-to-year (+8%, or +664,000) while widening its lead over ABC by +52% versus the comparable period last year. Also season-to-date, Nightly is currently posting its biggest audience (9.494 million) since the 2005-06 season and its largest advantage over ABC World News (+1.187 million) since the 2009-10 season.

Weekly Highlights:

· Nightly delivered 9.314 million total viewers, +1,050,000 more than ABC World News' 8.264 million and +2,200,000 more than CBS Evening News' 7.114 million.
· Nightly averaged a 6.2/12 Household rating, ahead of ABC's 5.5/11 and CBS' 4.7/9.
· Nightly delivered a 1.9 A25-54 rating, + 2 tenths ahead of ABC and +4 tenths more than CBS's 1.5 rating.
· Among A25-54 (000), Nightly averaged 2.244 million viewers, +157,000 ahead of World News' 2.087 million, and +429,000 ahead of Evening News' 1.815 million.

Trends:

· Nightly has topped World News by over 1 million viewers for 16 of the past 20 weeks.
· Nightly has won in total viewers for 236 consecutive weeks, and in 283 of the past 284 weeks.
· Nightly has won in viewers A25-54 for 277 of the past 278 weeks.

NOTE: CBS is based on a three-day average (Mon-Wed) due to NCAA basketball.

Patrick Burkey is the executive producer of "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams." For more news and information, go to www.nbcnightlynews.com, Facebook.com/NBCNightlyNews, or follow on Twitter @nbcnightlynews.

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