The Lead
On Monday, February 24th, NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt revealed he would step away from the venerable newscast later this year.
Holt has been the anchor of the program for the past 10 years, and 17 years if you include his tenure as host of the weekend version of the program.
As a mainstay for NBC Nightly News, the departure of Lester Holt was a big news story. And that upcoming loss has coincided with a ratings decline for the NBC News program since the announcement was made.
In the four weeks preceding Holt’s announcement, NBC Nightly News averaged 6.8 million total viewers. That positioned it well ahead of third place CBS Evening News, which averaged 4.6 million viewers during the time frame, but behind ABC World News Tonight, which averaged 8.3 million viewers.
Since Holt revealed his impending departure, NBC News has averaged 6.2 million total viewers, a decline of nearly 8%.
The viewership drop is steeper in the Adults 25-54 demographic. In the four weeks before Holt’s announcement, the network averaged just over 1 million viewers for its nightly newscast. Since that February 24th date, the program has averaged 912,000 viewers, a decline of more than 11%.
NBC News isn’t alone in the ratings decline, however. ABC News has seen a drop of more than 6% of its total audience in the same timeframe, while CBS News has seen a drop of greater than 9% in the window.
Lester Holt will be replaced in the anchor chair at NBC Nightly News by Tom Llamas later this spring.
Fox News Stays On Top of Cable Despite March Madness Competition
Fox News finishing as the top overall cable network isn’t anything new or unexpected. But during the week of March 17th, the network earned the top spot in spite of increase competition.
On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week, NCAA Tournament games aired on TBS, TNT, and truTV in primetime.
And yet, Fox News held the top spot in the primetime rankings in the cable television space. For the week, the network averaged 2.9 million total viewers.
With the increased viewership for the Warner Bros. Discovery cable channels, MSNBC dropped to fifth place in the overall cable landscape with an average of 1.1 million viewers in primetime. In the previous week, MSNBC was third overall with relatively the same numbers.
CNN tumbled to ninth with an average of 523,000 viewers. The network was down just slightly for the week, but the jumps by TBS, TNT, and truTV shuffled it lower in the rankings.
Newsmax finished tied for 21st with 293,000 total viewers. NewsNation was 60th with an average primetime audience of 90,000.
In the total day cable ratings, the power of the cable news format remained on display. Fox News nearly tripled second place MSNBC for the top spot with 1.78 million viewers. MSNBC featured an average total audience of 609,000, while CNN was seventh at 405,000. Newsmax climbed into the top 20 in the category with 195,000 viewers, while NewsNation was 66th with an average of 48,000 total day viewers.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
