NBC's Nightly News with Brian
Williams was the top-rated evening newscast for the week ended Jan 22. The
broadcast averaged 10.2 million total viewers, according to Nielsen. ABC's World
News with Diane Sawyer averaged 8.5 million viewers followed by the CBS
Evening News with Katie Couric, with 6.5 million viewers.
All of the broadcasts continued to
report on the devastation in Haiti.
But considerable time was also spent on Republican Scott
Brown's victory in the Jan. 19 special Senate election in Massachusetts.
(According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's weekly news
index, Brown was the top newsmaker of the week, edging out President
Obama).
Based on season-to-date
averages, all broadcasts posted gains last week. But NBC's Nightly
News is the only one to post year-to-year gains, actually growing 2%
among total viewers compared to the same week last year when the inauguration
of President Obama was drawing viewers to news. ABC's World News is
down 7% year-to-year and the CBS Evening News is down 8%.
