NBC Continues to Widen Its Advantage Over the Competition as it Marks the Five-Year Anniversary of Katrina

According to Nielsen Media Research data, a special edition of Meet the Press broadcast live from New Orleans, La., with guest moderator Brian Williams, was the top-rated Sunday morning public affairs program for the week ending Aug.29. The NBC program attracted 2.744 million total viewers, +16% (+378,000) more than second place CBS' 2.366 million total viewers, a 19% advantage (+441,000) over third place ABC's 2.303 million total viewers, and a +97% (1,349,000) lead over FOX News Sunday's 1.395 million total viewers. Meet the Press has now placed first in total viewers for 455 of the past 460 weeks (when everyone is at full coverage).  The program delivered an additional 1,236,000 viewers with rebroadcasts -- 492,000 viewers on the network and 744,000 viewers on MSNBC.

In Washington, D.C., Meet the Press beat the competition with 83,000 viewers (2.9/8 HH). The NBC program outperformed the competition with +46% ahead of FOX News Sunday’s 57,000 viewers (2.1/6 HH), +73% more than Face The Nation's 48,000 viewers (1.7/5 HH), and +388% more than This Week's 17,000 viewers (0.6/2 HH).

In homes nationally, the NBC broadcast topped the competition with a 2.0 rating and 6 share. CBS and ABC tied for second with a 1.7/5, and FOX was last with 1.0/3. Meet the Press has now placed first in households for 553 of the past 556 weeks (when everyone is at full coverage).

Among adults 25-54, the NBC Sunday morning program placed first with 919,000 viewers, ABC came in second with 751,000 viewers, CBS was third with 643,000 viewers and FOX News placed last with 427,000 viewers.

Week-to-week, Meet the Press posted ratings gains in rating W18-49 (+25%) and rating W25-54 (+17%) and widened its advantages over Face The Nation and This Week in both measures. Versus the same telecast last season, the NBC program increased its lead over No. 2 Face The Nation in rating W/M/A25-54. Meet also improved +17% in rating W25-54 compared to 3Q'10-to-date levels.

Compared to last season, Meet the Press has widened its lead over both Face The Nation and This Week in rating A18-49 and rating W25-54. Season-to-date, NBC now leads second-place Face The Nation by +18% in total viewers and +19% in A25-54 (000).

On its digital platforms, Meet the Press generated more than 140,000 online video streams from August 29 through September 2. The Meet the Press video podcast (available at www.mtp.msnbc.com) remains the top ranked network Sunday Morning program podcast on iTunes.

Last week's guests were Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and actor and founder of the Make It Right Foundation, Brad Pitt. The roundtable featured New Orleans native, a star of HBO's hit show Treme, and President of the Pontchartrain Park Community Development Corporation, Wendell Pierce; Long-time New Orleans journalist and Host of WWL-Radio New Orleans' Think Tank, Garland Robinette; and Historian, former professor at Tulane University and Author of The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Douglas Brinkley.

NBC News' Brian Williams was the guest moderator of Meet the Press on Sunday, Aug. 29. Betsy Fischer is the executive producer and Rebecca Samuels, Chris Donovan and Ilana Marcus Drimmer are producers.