Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Network TV: TV news magazine overall viewership (2016)

Year Viewership
2008 38,813,000
2009 39,173,000
2010 36,867,000
2011 36,210,000
2012 34,571,000
2013 34,146,000
2014 34,141,000
2015 32,482,000

Note: Dateline Sunday only airs in the spring; Dateline Friday data for the month of April 2013 are not available and therefore not included in the 2013 average. In 2015, Nielsen provided the Pew Research Center with weighted annual averages for each network starting with 2008 data. Weighted averages better account for slight differences in the number of programming hours in each broadcast month. Viewership corresponds to the average of quarter-hour audience for each network. Source: Pew Research Center analysis of Nielsen Media Research data, used under license. “State of the News Media 2016”

Icon for promotion number 1

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Fresh data delivered Saturday mornings