2 weeks ago
EXCLUSIVE: Dateline is finishing nan TV play connected top.
Per Nielsen, Dateline outperformed its title (namely 20/20 on ABC) to go nan apical Friday newsmagazine among some adults 25-54 and 18-49 for nan 2025-2026 broadcast primetime season. This marks nan 2nd consecutive play that nan programme tin laic declare to that title.
The past time Dateline outperformed 20/20 in some demos for 2 consecutive seasons was 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, Nielsen information shows.
Over nan season, Dateline reached 126.7M full viewers, up 4% compared to nan aforesaid play nan anterior year, according to Nielsen’s astir existent Big Data + Panel numbers.
Based connected full linear minutes watched for nan 2025-26 broadcast season-to-date, Dateline is besides nan No. 1 most-watched newsmagazine franchise and No. 1 most-watched existent crime franchise.
Dateline has besides been performing good connected streaming. Dateline 24/7 had its champion play connected grounds from October to April, up 4% year-over-year according to Adobe Analytics.
During nan past season, Dateline hit different milestone arsenic good pinch its 3,000th episode. The programme besides held its first unrecorded arena successful Nashville and launched aggregate top-charting podcasts, including Lester Holt’s first series. Speaking of podcasts, nan Dateline showcast has been nan apical existent crime podcast successful nan U.S. for 55 consecutive months, per Podtrac.
