‘TODAY’ & ‘Nightly’ Dominated ABC & CBS During the Two Weeks with Largest Summer Olympics Advantages since 2016
NBCNews.com Has Best Month in Over Three Years in July; TODAY Marks Best Month Ever on Instagram and TikTok
August 12, 2024 – TODAY and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt are #1 in total viewers and the key A25-54 and A18-49 demos for the two-week duration of the 2024 Paris Olympics, according to Nielsen Media Research.
Beginning Friday, July 26 through Thursday, August 8, TODAY averaged 3.097 million total viewers, 741,000 A25-54 viewers, and 501,000 A18-49 viewers; Nightly News averaged 7.644 million total viewers, 1.459 million A25-54 viewers, and 1.137 million A18-49 viewers.
In the morning, TODAY led #2 GMA by +19% in total viewers, +62% in A25-54, and +84% in A18-49. During the evening, Nightly topped ABC World News Tonight by +2% in total viewers, +48% in A25-54 and +66% in A18-49. TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb and Nightly’s Lester Holt began anchoring their respective broadcasts from the 2024 Paris Olympics on July 26.
Broadcast Highlights include:
- TODAY and Nightly posted their largest Summer Olympics across-the-board advantages vs. the competition since Rio 2016.
- Sunday’s NBC Nightly News (8/4) was the #1 show of the week in total viewers and the key A25-54 demo for the second week in a row, excluding sports. Anchored by Holt, the newscast averaged 9.329 million total viewers and 2.201 million A25-54 viewers.
- During Week 1, TODAY topped GMA and CBS combined in the key demo for the first time since London 2012 and had its largest win over GMA since Pyeongchang 2018.
- TODAY twice posted its largest single-day demo advantage vs. GMA in nearly 6 years, Friday, August 2 and Thursday, August 8.
- On Monday, August 5, Nightly delivered its largest single-day advantage vs. ABC in nearly seven years (since 11/2017) across the board, averaging 8.490 million total viewers and 1.643 A25-54 viewers.
- Monday also marked Nightly’s largest A25-54 demo weekday viewership in over two years (best since 2/2022).
- TODAY topped ABC and CBS’ combined demo audiences on Tuesday, July 30 (averaging 773,000) and Wednesday, July 31 (averaging 774,000).
- Nightly beat ABC’s and CBS’s combined demo viewership on Tuesday, July 30 (averaging 1.412 million), Monday, August 5 (averaging 1.643 million), and Wednesday, August 7 (averaging 1.511 million).
- Nightly’s total viewership since the Paris Olympics began is its largest Summer Olympics delivery since Rio 2016.
NBCNews.com’s sports vertical delivered back-to-back record weeks, growing more than double week-over-week and 20x the pre-Olympics average, and making up a significant share of the site’s page views.
- Compared to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, unique visitors are up +19%, page views are up +34% and video starts are up +109%.
- In July, NBCNews.com had its strongest month in over three years and a top 10 month on record for the site, reaching 123 million unique visitors in July.
- In the first seven days of August, NBCNews.com is outpacing all other months this year in daily audience, page views and video starts across owned and operated platforms.
- NBC News marked its strongest month this year across both TikTok (up +286%) and YouTube in July, with Instagram up +197% versus the prior year.
Over the last two weeks of the Olympics, TODAY.com has averaged 2.2 million daily unique visitors, 2.8 million daily page views and 1.4 million daily video starts.
- TODAY marked its best month on record for both Instagram and TikTok in July, with over 200 million views on Instagram and over 150 million views on TikTok, ahead of all competition, including People, GMA and CBS Mornings.
- TODAY’s surge across social continues into August, pacing ahead of all competition on both Instagram and TikTok. TODAY is up more than +300% versus the prior year on TikTok and up more than +100% versus the prior year on Instagram.
- TODAY’s on-network video is reaching its strongest levels since October 2023, +32% versus the 2024 year-to-date average.
- TODAY.com’s Opening Ceremony live blog ranks as a top three live blog on record.
Source: Nielsen Media Research, Live+Same Day, 7/26-8/8/2024, inclusive of all titles. Adobe Analytics & Partner Dashboards.
For more information, contact:
Dominique Donahue
Dominique.Donahue@nbcuni.com
Claudia Meyer-Samargia
Claudia.MeyerSamargia@nbcuni.com
