ABC's 'Nightline' Ranks No. 1 in Latenight Across All Key Demos for the Second Quarter 2012

ABC's "Nightline" ranked as the No. 1 program in latenight during 2nd Quarter 2012 in all target demos: Total Viewers (3.843 million), Adults 25-54 (1.503 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.198 million), taking the top spot in back-to-back 2nd quarters, according to Nielsen Media Research. Further, 2Q12 represented the 7th quarter in a row that "Nightline" stood as the most-watched latenight program versus NBC's "The Tonight Show" and CBS' "The Late Show," while leading for the 6th time in the last 7 quarters in the key adult news demo.

Impressively, "Nightline" ranked No. 1 in Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 in all 13 weeks of 2Q12 and in 12 of 13 weeks in Total Viewers.

"Nightline" scored its largest quarter margins over NBC's "The Tonight Show" in Adults 25-54 (+180,000) and Adults 18-49 (+199,000) in 17 years and largest Total Viewer lead (+333,000) over a Jay Leno-hosted "The Tonight Show" in 17 years - since 2Q95.

"Nightline" turned in its largest quarter leads over CBS' "The Late Show" in 13 years in Total Viewers (+989,000), Adults 25-54 (+328,000) and Adults 18-49 (+302,000) - since 3Q99, 2Q99 and 3Q99, respectively.

Week of June 18, 2012

For the 12th time in the last 13 weeks, ABC's "Nightline" ranked as latenight's No. 1 program in all 3 target demos: Total Viewers (3.500 million), Adults 25-54 (1.534 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.365 million) during the week of June 18, 2012, according to Nielsen Media Research.

"Nightline" has taken the No. 1 position in 28 weeks in Total Viewers, 33 weeks in Adults 25-54 and 32 weeks in Adults 18-49 of the 40 weeks of the season to date.

"Nightline" built on the same week last year by double-digits in Adults 25-54 (+11%) and Adults 18-49 (+32%) standing as the only program to grow year-to-year in both measures versus NBC's "The Tonight Show" (-25% and -30%, respectively) and CBS' "The Late Show" (-7% and -6%, respectively).

For the 3rd straight week of original competition, "Nightline" held the No. 1 latenight telecast of the week (Tuesday - 6/19/12) in Total Viewers (3.968 million), Adults 25-54 (2.030 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.925 million).

Season to date, "Nightline" ranks No. 1 in latenight among Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49, ahead of both NBC's "The Tonight Show" and CBS' "The Late Show." This marks the 2nd straight season that the ABC program is taking the top spot in overall viewers and the key adult news demo.

ABC News' "Nightline" is anchored by Cynthia McFadden, Terry Moran and Bill Weir. Juju Chang is a correspondent. Jeanmarie Condon is the Executive Producer. The program airs weeknights from 11:35 p.m., ET to 12:00 a.m. on the ABC Television Network. Together with "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Nightline" is part of ABC's winning latenight strategy of airing news and entertainment programming.