NBC News wins big thanks to Olympics

With NBCUniversal posting huge ratings for the 2024 Summer Olympics, NBC News also won big.

“NBC Nightly News” and “Today” both took the top spots in total viewers and two key demos during the two weeks of the Olympics, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Beginning Friday, July 26, 2024, through Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, “Today” averaged 3.097 million total viewers, 741,000 adults 25-54 viewers and 501,000 adults 18-49 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” lead ABC ‘s “Good Morning America” 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. T

Broadcast highlights include:

• Both “Today” and “Nightly” posted their largest Summer Olympics across-the-board advantages vs. the competition since Rio 2016.
  Aug. 4, 2024’s “Nightly” was the top show of the week in total viewers and the key A25-54 demo for the second week in a row, excluding sports. Anchored by Lester Holt, the newscast averaged 9.329 million total viewers and 2.201 million A25-54 viewers.
• During Week 1, “Today” topped “GMA” and “CBS Mornings” 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 six years, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, and Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024.
• On Monday, Aug. 5, 2024, “Nightly” delivered its largest single-day advantage vs. ABC in nearly seven years across the board, averaging 8.490 million total viewers and 1.643 A25-54 viewers.
• Monday also marked the largest A25-54 demo weekday viewership in over two years for “Nightly.”
• “Today” topped ABC and CBS’ combined demo audiences on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, (averaging 773,000) and Wednesday, July 31, 2024, (averaging 774,000).
• “Nightly” beat ABC’s and CBS’s combined demo viewership on Tuesday, July 30, 2024, (averaging 1.412 million), Monday, Aug. 5 (averaging 1.643 million), and Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, (averaging 1.511 million).

In addition, NBCNews.com’s sports vertical delivered back-to-back record weeks, growing more than double week-over-week and 20-times 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%.

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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” also 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.”

Growth 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” on-network video is reaching its strongest levels since October 2023, up 32% versus the 2024 year-to-date average.

The Today.com opening ceremony live blog ranks as a top three live blog on record.