NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt ranked top for the November 2018 sweep period according to Nielsen Research data.
The flagship NBC News broadcast finished as the leader in the key news demo for 14 consecutive sweep periods and 40 of the last 43 sweeps.
The broadcast averaged 1.9 million A25-54 viewers, leading ABC World News Tonight by +79,000 viewers (+4%) and CBS Evening News by +608,000 viewers (+47%). Compared to the sweep period in July, Nightly News increased its key demo advantage over ABC nine-fold and the broadcast’s November sweep advantage over CBS was the highest in six years (+23% vs November 2017).
Among A18-49, Nightly News averaged 1.3 million viewers for the sweep period, topping ABC by +72,000 (+6%) and CBS by +398,000 (+44%). Nightly News is now #1 in A18-49 for 14 straight sweeps and 44 of the last 45 sweeps and increased its advantage over ABC by more than 14 times vs. the July 2018 sweep.
Nightly News averaged 8.5 million total viewers for the November 2018 sweep, leading CBS Evening News by +2.3 million viewers (+36%). Nightly News improved its lead over CBS by +32% (+574,000) from the November 2017 sweep and delivered its biggest November sweep total viewer win over CBS since 2011.
Nightly News was the only broadcast to grow its total viewer audience year-over-year, grew the most in total viewers vs. the July 2018 sweep, and narrowed the margin against ABC.