“This Week” Ranks #1 in Adults 25-54
— -- For Sunday May 17, “This Week” Ranks #1 in Adults 25-54
“This Week” Beats NBC’s “Meet the Press” in Total Viewers by Largest Margin in 3 Months and Biggest Margin in Adults 25-54 in 5 Months
For the 2015 May Sweep, “This Week” Outdelivers “Meet the Press” in Both Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 for the 2nd Consecutive Year
May 17, 2015
ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” ranked as the No. 1 public affairs program for the 2nd week in a row in Adults 25-54 (1.056 million) on May 17, 2015, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. In the key adult news demo, “This Week” led NBC’s “Meet the Press” by 187,000 (869,000) and CBS’ “Face the Nation” by 282,000 (774,000). In fact, “This Week” led the CBS program by a season-best with its largest Adults 25-54 advantage since August – since 8/31/14. In addition, “This Week” posted its biggest news demo lead over “Meet the Press” since January – since 1/4/15.
“This Week” beat “Meet the Press by 165,000 Total Viewers (2.781 million vs. 2.616 million), its largest advantage in 3 months – since 2/15/15. Further, “This Week” has outdelivered the NBC program in Total Viewers for the 3rd week in a row and in 6 out of the last 7 weeks.
For the 3rd straight telecast, “This Week” built on its week-ago performance in Adults 25-54 (+3% - 1.056 million vs. 1.030 million for 5/10/15). In fact, “This Week” delivered its best news demo performance in more than 3 months (since 2/1/15) and 2nd-best overall this season. In addition, “This Week” stood as the only program to grow week to week in the key adults news demo as CBS’ “Face the Nation” (-1%), NBC’s “Meet the Press” (-7%) and Fox’s “Fox News Sunday” (-12%) all turned in decreases.
For the 2nd week in a row, “This Week” posted increases from the year-ago Sunday (2.596 million and 689,000 on 5/18/14) in both Total Viewers (+7%) and Adults 25-54 (+53%). In fact, the ABC public affairs program saw the most year-to-year improvement in the key adult news demo compared to CBS’ “Face the Nation” (-6%), NBC’s “Meet the Press” (+23%) and Fox’s “Fox News Sunday” (-17%) all turned in decreases.
Season to date, “This Week” is up in Adults 25-54 (+2% - 871,000 vs. 852,000) versus its year-ago season average, delivering its strongest news demo performance in 6 years – since the 2008-09 season. In fact, “This Week” is the only program to grow in Adults 25-54 as CBS’ “Face the Nation” is flat, while NBC’s “Meet the Press” (-3%) and Fox’s “Fox News Sunday” (-2%) are both down.
In addition, “This Week” is outdelivering NBC’s “Meet the Press” in Total Viewers (+13,000) and Adults 25-54 (+60,000) for the 2nd year in a row, seeing its largest news demo lead in 21 years – since the 1993-94 season.
May 2015 Sweep
For the 2015 May Sweep, “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” averaged 2.634 million and 885,000, based on Most Current Data from Nielsen Media Research. For the 2nd year in a row, “This Week” outperformed NBC’s “Meet the Press” (2.623 million and 832,000, respectively) during the May Sweep in both Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 (+11,000 and +53,000, respectively).
“This Week” turned in its first back-to-back May Sweep victory over the NBC program in 19 years in Total Viewers (since May 1995 and May 1996) and in 22 years in Adults 25-54 (since May 1992 and May 1993). Further, “This Week” has beaten “Meet the Press” in 4 of the past 5 sweeps periods in overall viewers and for the 5th straight sweeps in the key adult news demo.
“This Week” improved on the year-ago sweep (May 2014) by double digits Adults 25-54 (+15% - 885,000 vs. 767,000) to post its strongest news demo performance in 6 years – since May 2009.
“This Week” trailed CBS’ “Face the Nation” by only 7,000 Adults 25-54 (885,000 vs. 892,000) for its closest news demo delivery during a May sweep in 6 years – since May 2009.
Jonathan Greenberger is Vice President and Washington Bureau Chief, and also serves as the Executive Producer of “This Week.” Robin Sproul serves as Vice President, Public Affairs and Executive-in-Charge of “This Week”
Follow “This Week” on Twitter @ThisWeekABC.
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