News Ratings: NBC Nightly News Wins Close November Sweeps

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams Edges ABC World News with Charles Gibson

By Alex Weprin -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/4/2007 2:06:00 PM

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams won the 2007 November sweep period in total viewers and viewers in the key 25-54 demo, barely beating out ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

NBC Nightly News held a 100,000-viewer lead over ABC World News in total viewers and a 20,000-viewer lead in the key demo. The numbers for total viewers and demo viewers were the closest they have been in a sweeps period since 2001 and 1996, respectively.

The sweeps win by NBC continues a seesaw ratings race that has been going on since early this year, when ABC World News overtook longtime evening news leader NBC Nightly News in both demo and total viewers.

CBS Evening News with Katie Couric finished third, well behind both ABC and NBC in total viewers and demo viewers. More notably, Ms. Couric saw her audience fall by more than a million viewers compared to last year's November performance.

The sweeps ratings are below:

• NBC Nightly News: 9.21 million total viewers, 2.3 rating/9 share, 2.79 million viewers in the key demo.

• ABC World News: 9.11 million total viewers, 2.2 rating/9 share, 2.77 million viewers in the key demo.

• CBS Evening News: 6.74 million total viewers, 1.7 rating/6 share, 2.08 million viewers in the key demo.