“NBC Nightly News” took a minor ratings hit as new host Tom Llamas replaced veteran anchor Lester Holt last week, according to Nielsen data out Tuesday.
For the week of June 2, “Nightly News” averaged 5.45 million viewers, which was down 4.7% compared to the week prior, when Holt averaged 5.72 million viewers as he wrapped up his decade in the anchor chair. Holt’s ratings were flat week-over-week during his final few days hosting for NBC, and down slightly — 2.7% — when compared to the month prior.
Stepping back further, NBC’s ratings last week were flat when compared to the same period a year ago, while Nielsen data also showed NBC Nightly News attracted 27% new viewers for Llamas’ first two days anchoring the program.
As is usually the case, NBC’s evening newscast came in second place to David Muir’s “ABC World News Tonight” last week. Muir averaged 7 million viewers in his first week facing off against Llamas, which was flat compared to the week prior.
“CBS Evening News,” co-hosted by Maurice DuBois and John Dickerson, averaged 3.90 million viewers last week. Comparing to the same period a year prior, ABC’s ratings were down 1% and CBS Evening News was down 8%.
The anchor switch did not help “NBC Nightly News” with the 25-54 age demographic, either. Llamas averaged 771,000 viewers in the key demo during his first week, which was down 7% compared to Holt’s final week.
Meanwhile, Muir and ABC averaged 907,000 viewers in the demo — up 2.60% week-over-week — and CBS jumped 5.71% from the week prior to average 518,000 demo viewers, for comparison.
Llamas was named the new anchor for “NBC Nightly News” in March shortly after Holt revealed he would be exiting the show, which he had hosted since 2015.
