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NBC News celebrates four years of ratings wins — but there’s a catch

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

NBC News is trumpeting a four year ratings win for its signature “Today,” “NBC Nightly News” and “Meet the Press” shows — though it’s worth looking at what, exactly, the its self declared win means.

  • Under the banner “four the win,” the network is touting that all three shows have been number one the past four years.
  • Digging a bit deeper into the data provided by the network illustrates that the shows have actually been top in the valuable adults age 24-54 demo.
  • This doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that the network won in total viewers.
  • In fact, only “Meet the Press” actually won the past year in the total viewership race.
  • “Meet the Press” has been the winner in both overall counts and the key demo for the past three years.
  • The show did not, however, win total viewers for all of the past four seasons — CBS’s “Face the Nation” won that spot four years ago.
  • Current moderator Chuck Todd took over the show five years ago after David Gregory was ousted amid ratings troubles.
  • “NBC Nightly News” and “Today,” meanwhile, continue to battle against ABC’s “World News Tonight” and “Good Morning America,” respectively.
  • NBC’s morning offering has won in the demo for four seasons in a row — but has traded off in total viewers with ABC off and on.
  • “Today” has topped “GMA” in total viewers for 13 weeks this year, its best margin over ABC in seven years and over “CBS This Morning” in three.
  • Earlier this year, “CBS This Morning” shook up its anchor team when Norah O’Donnell left for the evening anchor chair and John Dickerson left for “60 Minutes.”
  • Tony Dokoupil and Anthony Mason were brought along remaining co-anchor Gayle King — but initial ratings have been sluggish.
  • NBC’s announcement doesn’t include any “Nightly” total viewer wins — though it is in its 12th straight season atop the A25-54 demo and 23rd straight season winning the A18-24 demo.
  • “Nightly” also beat “CBS Evening News” by the largest total viewer margins in five years and in the A25-54 demo in seven.
  • “Evening News,” meanwhile, dropped anchor Jeff Glor earlier this year after disappointing ratings replacing him with O’Donnell.
  • Ratings haven’t ticked up much since she took over.

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