For incoming NBC News boss Deborah Turness, the task of turning around the embattled news division just got tougher.
“ABC World News With Diane Sawyer” scored a narrow victory over “NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams” last week, breaking his 243-week winning streak.
Sawyer beat Williams among viewers 25-to-54 years old, the most important category for advertisers on news.
Coverage of the George Zimmerman trial and the birth of the royal baby helped “World News” win by a narrow margin of 38,000 viewers. ABC drew 1.917 million viewers, compared with 1.879 million at NBC.
In an earlier blow this year for Williams and NBC News, the network canceled “Rock Center With Brian Williams,” the 2-year-old newsmagazine that struggled to keep up in the ratings.
The setbacks come on the heels of NBC’s “Today,” the most profitable part of the news division, losing the top spot in the morning ratings race last year to archrival ABC News.
NBC argued one win isn’t worth worrying about and that Williams still comes out on top season-to-date.
Nevertheless, this latest defeat has the alarm bells going off inside NBC News, especially with a new boss coming on board. Turness, the former head of ITV News in the UK, is set to take the reins on Aug. 5.
No one is feeling the heat more than Senior Vice President Alexandra Wallace, who oversees the morning show and the evening news.
Both “Today” and “Nightly News” suffered layoffs in the last few weeks, while Williams is said to still be smarting over the cancellation of “Rock Center.”
“[Wallace] is besieged right now. ‘Rock Center’ was hers, she’s in charge at ‘Today,’ and now ‘Nightly’ has lost. There’s trouble in paradise, and Brian Williams doesn’t know where to turn,” said one senior news executive. “This is going to draw on all of Deborah’s talents to figure out the way ahead.”
NBC News Chairwoman Patricia Fili-Krushel has made it clear that a top priority is reviving “Today,” which remains mired in second place.
On top of the morning and evening news losses, Fili-Krushel is dealing with a number of headaches throughout NBC’s far-flung news division, which includes MSNBC and CNBC.
July ratings delivered bad news for those cable outlets.
MSNBC, run by President Phil Griffin, finished fourth in total viewers — behind Fox News Channel, CNN and Headline News — for the second time in three months.
It lost 12 percent of its total viewers compared with July 2012, and 4 percent of its 25-to-54-year-old daytime audience. In prime time, losses were even steeper, down 18 percent in total audience and 9 percent in the key 25-54 demo.
At CNBC, overseen by CEO Mark Hoffman, July ratings were also going in the wrong direction.
During the main business viewing hours of 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., CNBC drew 202,000 viewers, or 25,000 fewer than last year. It lost 11 percent of its audience in the key demo.
“[Fili-Krushel] is spending a lot of time at CNBC,” said a source.