NBC Nightly News Gets Tom Llamas Ratings Bump as He Fills in for Lester Holt

Tom Llamas brought NBC Nightly News a rare ratings victory over ABC World News Tonight with David Muir on Thursday (April 17), beating the usually number one broadcast by 19,000 viewers in the key A25-54 demo.

According to AdWeek, citing live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, NBC Nightly News topped ABC in the key A25-54 demo on Thursday and was the No. 4 most-watched show of the week with 5.908 million total viewers (LS, excluding specials, sports & syndication).

The show’s usual host, Lester Holt, anchored Monday and Friday, while Llamas stepped in to host Tuesday to Thursday. Last week’s averages only counted the Monday-Thursday broadcasts, as Friday’s Good Friday programming was excluded from the weekly and season averages.

Thursday’s demo victory is a good sign for NBC News as Llamas is set to take over as Holt’s successor as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News beginning this summer. Before joining NBC News, Llamas served as the weekend anchor of ABC World News Tonight from 2014 until 2021.

“Anchoring NBC Nightly News is a profound honor and one that carries tremendous responsibility,” Llamas said in a statement last month. “Lester Holt is a great man and one of the most trusted broadcasters of our time. Just like Lester, I promise to be devoted to our viewers and dedicated to the truth.”

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ABC, NBC & CBS Evening News Ratings Revealed: Who’s on Top?

Despite the demo victory over ABC World News Tonight on Thursday, NBC Nightly News was down in both total viewers and key demo from the week prior. The show averaged 5.908 million total viewers (down 3%) and 816,000 demo viewers (down 4%).

ABC World News Tonight also dropped on its previous week, averaging 7.172 million total viewers (down 4%) and 959,000 demo viewers (down 6%).

CBS Evening News was the only evening newscast to show increases over the week prior, with 3.738 million total viewers (flat with last week) and 544,000 viewers in the demo (up 11%).