ABC News has been crowing about its flagship “World News Tonight With David Muir” taking the gold medal during the Winter Olympics, putting rival Lester Holt and his “NBC Nightly News” in the silver spot.
But sources tell Page Six that, with Muir passing Holt in overall audience and closing the gap in the all-important 25-to-54-year-old demographic, Holt’s bosses at NBC are beginning to sweat. And to make things even more awkward, Brian Williams — whom Holt replaced on “Nightly News” after Williams was caught telling fibs on the air — is a smash hit at his new gig at MSNBC.
Meanwhile, sources tell us that if Holt’s stats were ever to get into terminal territory and the network needed to make a change in the anchor’s chair, the Peacock Network’s recent crises would put them in a major bind.
We’re told that Savannah Guthrie — who has been a huge hit as “Today” co-host with Hoda Kotb since Matt Lauer was fired for alleged sexual misconduct in November — “would absolutely be a contender [for the ‘Nightly News’ gig],” and that “before Matt was fired, you could make a case to move Savannah to [‘Nightly News’], but it’s impossible to do that now.”
Bank-busting hire Megyn Kelly would be out, given that she’s having her own ratings woes.
Williams is proving himself to be a viewer-magnet on sister station MSNBC, where his “The 11th Hour” show has been No. 1 in its time slot (albeit on a network that gets far fewer viewers overall than NBC). He was moved there in 2015 after being suspended by NBC for embellishing stories about the Iraq War, and was replaced by Holt.
An NBC News insider said, “Lester is beloved at the network, is doing outstanding work, and has ‘Nightly News’s’ longest-winning demo streak in over 4 ¹/₂ years.” Industry insiders were at pains to point out that Holt beat Muir in parts of the country where their shows aired at the same time during the games, with Muir ahead only in areas where Holt’s show had aired early due to sports coverage.