‘NBC Nightly News’ With Lester Holt Scores 20th Straight Season Ratings Win

Program beats ABC’s “World News Tonight” and “CBS Evening News” in demo and total viewers

NBC

“NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” finished the 2015-16 season ranked No. 1 in total viewers and all demos, marking its 20th consecutive across-the-board season win.

The program averaged 8.57 million total viewers for the season, compared to 7.67 million for ABC’s “World News Tonight” and 6.31 million for CBS’ “Evening News.”

Holt’s newscast finished ahead of ABC by three percent and dominated CBS by 22 percent in total viewers. Among the key news demo of adults age 25-54, “Nightly News” averaged 2.1 million viewers, compared to 1.9 million for ABC and 1.6 million for CBS.

During the 2015-16 season, “Nightly News” added the most demo viewers, gaining 2 percent since last year, improving its lead over rivals.

Holt is a busy man these days. He has anchored from Nice, France, the presidential conventions and a variety of other breaking news locations throughout the season. He also still hosts “Dateline” and is even scheduled to perform with his band at an NBC party on Tuesday night in New York.

The “Nightly News” anchor is set to get a ton of additional exposure, as he will moderate the Sept. 26 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton from Hofstra University in New York. Many pundits expect the debate to break ratings records, although Holt’s NBC colleague Matt Lauer recently learned that the added spotlight isn’t always a good thing.

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