Lester Holt continues to hold his own and hold back all of the competition in the evening news race. Holt has been sitting in on NBC Nightly News since disgraced anchor, Brian Williams, was officially suspended for the next six months. Last week, it was confirmed that former NBC chief, Andy Lack, was back in his former position in the hopes that he could whip the network back into shape. Williams is currently the subject of an internal investigation and he is also a good friend of Lack's. It looks like he's going to have to make a tough decision if Holt continues to win the ratings in key demographics.
According to a report by Deadline, "NBC's broadcast delivered its widest total-viewer margins over both ABC and CBS in four weeks. That makes it Holt's best advantage over ABC's World News Tonight with David Muir since Holt began filling in for Williams. Nightly clocked its eighth week of the past nine at No. 1 in the news demo, and 12th of the past 14 weeks. Nightly averaged 2.391 million news-demo viewers, besting ABC by 90,000 and CBS by 609,000. In the younger, 18-49 demo, the newscast averaged 1.709 million viewers, topping ABC by 174,000 and CBS by 485,000."
Later this year, Lack will be in the unenviable position of having to choose between loyalty for Williams, who he personally groomed to replace Tom Brokaw, or Holt, who is quickly emerging as a solid, trusted voice leading the way for a shaky network. Are you surprised that Holt is continuing to hold things down? Would you rather see him named as the permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News or are you hoping that Williams will return? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below!
