network news

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt is on a roll, winning its fifth week in row in all measurements and growing the audience double digits compared to the same week last year. Nightly News was up 13% in viewers and up a whopping 25% in the adults 25-54 demo.

NBC’s Meet the Press had its biggest audience in more than a year for its Trump interview on Aug. 16, leading that show’s biggest competitors — ABC’s This Week and CBS’ sFace the Nation — to feature phone interviews with the New York businessman this past Sunday.

Broadcast and cable networks roll out plans to commemorate the 10 anniversary of the storm that devastated Louisiana and Mississippi.

Instead of putting money and resources into into the “air-conditioned skyboxes” above the convention floor that typically showcase network reporters and analysts, CBS News will focus on participants “on the ground,” according to CBS News President David Rhodes.

ABC News remembered its legendary anchor Peter Jennings on Friday, ten years after his death in a video tribute.

In his first sweeps month as Nightly News anchor Lester Holt gave the NBC broadcast its biggest July audience in 10 years, and its best in the adults 25-54 demo since 2013. Holt officially took over the show six weeks ago, but has been anchoring since February when Brian Williams was taken off the show.

  BOSTON (AP) — After six years of helping the Obama administration determine the nation’s food policy, former White House chef and food policy adviser Sam Kass will now report […]

Alex Wallace, a 10-year veteran of NBC News, is leaving the network, effective today. As senior vice president, Wallace has overseen NBC Nightly News as well as Meet the Press, and, since 2014, the Washington bureau.

NBC Nightly News is No.1 in total viewers and 25-54s in his first four weeks as permanent anchor, after months of back-and-forth with ABC.

While covering Autumn Veatch, the 16-year-old who survived plane crash in rural Washington, KIRO reporter Gary Horcher noted what he called “an unsettling observation” about how the major networks attempted to get exclusives with Veatch’s family by offering them hotel rooms, food and other gifts. “I’m a local reporter, and the currency I trade is built on relationships — on trust — on belief that I’m their advocate. I’ve never offered anything more in exchange for information, or an interview.”

Sanders was the first woman to anchor a primetime network newscast, for ABC, in 1964, when she filled-in for Ron Cochran, who had lost his voice that night. She was also the first network TV female journalist to report from Vietnam, in 1966, and the first female vice president of a news division, ABC, in 1976.

Lester Holt is on a ratings roll on NBC Nightly News. Last week, the evening news broadcast scored its third consecutive weekly ratings win since Holt was officially named as the replacement for Brian Williams as anchor. The program also has taken a narrow lead over ABC World News Tonight with David Muir in the 2014-15 TV season among viewers age 25-54, the group targeted by advertisers who buy commercials on news programs.

ABC’s Nightline won the second quarter of 2015 in all three key measurements: total viewers, and the adults 25-54 and 18-49 demos. Nightline has now finished No. 1 in total viewers for the third straight quarter and in four of the last five.

Telemundo’s newscast Noticiero Telemundo will air a special edition that will be shot on mobile devices, making the NBCUniversal-owned network the first national network to air news stories via smartphones and tablets. Journalists will record and file the stories on mobile devices, anchors will be shot on both studio cameras and mobile devices.

Lester Holt got off to a strong start in his first week as permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News. Holt’s broadcast averaged 8 million viewers for the week of June 22-26, topping ABC World News Tonight with David Muir (7.7 million) and CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley (6.6 million). It was the best ratings performance for Nightly since the week of April 20, and the widest margin of victory over ABC’s program in three months.

CBS News has quietly canceled Up to the Minute, the pioneering overnight news program that, under the original name, CBS News Nightwatch, began more than 30 years ago. The program will end mid-September, but CBS News is expected to supply some other form of programming in the overnight hours.

Holt, who had been sitting in as NBC Nightly News anchor since Brian Williams was suspended, has officially gotten the job he had all but given up on. With the perch comes the responsibility to lead a news organization that is not only trying to repair its reputation, but also striving to keep pace with a rapidly evolving digital landscape, where the moral authority of a network news anchor has faded.

If there were any doubts about Lester Holt’s new position as the official anchor of NBC Nightly News, his new promotional video puts them to rest

Williams was suspended in February for falsely claiming he had been in a helicopter hit by enemy fire during the Iraq War. NBC launched an internal investigation that found Williams “made a number of inaccurate statements about his own role and experiences covering events in the field.” “Brian now has the chance to earn back everyone’s trust,” said Andrew Lack, chairman of NBC News and MSNBC.

Assuming everything reported about Brian Williams’ transgressions are true, it’s still important to keep this in perspective.  While those grievous errors wouldn’t allow him to return to the anchor seat, it shouldn’t keep him from pursuing his life’s work — assuming he returns humbled and squares with his audience.

NBC and Williams have come to a tentative agreement that will keep Williams at the network after his six-month suspension ends in August. The decision, described by people with knowledge of the plan, ends months of speculation that Williams could leave NBC altogether. Williams will not be returning to the NBC Nightly News anchor chair. Instead, he will have a new role at MSNBC. His fill-in Lester Holt will become NBC Nightly News’ permanent anchor

The evening news race continues to be highly competitive. NBC Nightly News had the most viewers last week, but ABC World News Tonight brought in the most 25-to-54 viewers, the age group sought by news advertisers.

It’s been four months now since NBC News anchorman Brian Williams was called out for exaggerating the dangers of his Iraq war reporting experiences, causing him to be temporarily suspended while the network investigated other possible embellishments the newsman might have made over the years. The burning question now becomes if, as multiple media reports indicate, NBC really does want to keep Williams at the network in some other capacity, what on earth should they do with him?