During the week of March 14, 2011, ABC News’ ranked No. 1 among Total Viewers (4.26 million), Adults 25-54 (1.70 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.28 million), according to Nielsen Media Research.
In fact, “Nightline” ranked No. 1 in all key target demos for the 4th consecutive week. Also, “Nightline” ranked No. 1 in Total Viewers for the 16th time during the season.
This represents the most number of weeks at No. 1 in Total Viewers during the course of any season, beating both “The Tonight Show” and “The Late Show,” in 15 years – since 1995-96 season.
“Nightline” improved over the same week last year across all key target demos: Total Viewers (+27%), Adults 25-54 (+19%) and Adults 18-49 (+17%). In fact, the ABC late night program grew its overall audience for the 5th week in a row.
Season to date, “Nightline” ranks first in late-night among Total Viewers and Adults 25-54.
This is the first time that “Nightline” has been in first place at this point in the season since at least the 1993-94 season, when “Letterman” began on CBS. In addition, “Nightline” is up by +2% in Total Viewers and by +3% in Adults 25-54 season to date compared to the same point last year.
“Nightline” outperformed CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman” by it 2nd-largest margin of the season in Total Viewers (+930,000).
“Nightline” bettered NBC’s “The Tonight Show” by its largest advantage in Adults 25-54 (+170,000) in over 4 months and largest margin in Adults 18-49 (+110,000) in over 2 months – since weeks of 11/8/10 and 1/3/11, respectively.
On 3/14/11, “Nightline,” with continuing coverage of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, saw its most-watched Monday telecast (5.26 million) in 8 years – since 3/24/03.
Note: Due to CBS’ coverage of NCAA Basketball, “The Late Show” was delayed and broken out on Thu (3/17/11) and Fri (3/18/11); ratings are excluded from the averages.
ABC News’ “Nightline” is anchored by Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran and Bill Weir. John Donvan and Vicki Mabrey are correspondents. Jeanmarie Condon is the Executive Producer. The program airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m., ET on the ABC Television Network.
(Week of March 14, 2011)
TOTAL VIEWERS A25-54(000)/ Rtg A18-49(000)/ Rtg
ABC “Nightline” 4,260,000 1,700,000/ 1.4 1,280,000/ 1.0
CBS “Late Show” 3,330,000 1,530,000/ 1.2 1,210,000/ 0.9
NBC “Tonight Show” 3,870,000 1,510,000/ 1.2 1,170,000/ 0.9
(Source: ABC – The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 & Adults 18-49 Live+SD weeks of 3/14/11, 3/7/11 & 3/15/10. Live+7 (where available) & Live+SD for Season-to-date 10-11 vs. 09-10 (9/2/10-3/18/11 vs. 9/21/09-3/19/10).
