NEW YORK — Brian Williams’ nightly newscast on NBC was beaten soundly in the ratings by ABC’s “World News Tonight” on Friday, two days after Williams apologized for telling a false story about being in a helicopter hit by a grenade in Iraq 12 years ago.
The Nielsen company said that ABC’s broadcast had 8.46 million viewers on Friday, while NBC’s “Nightly News” had just under 8 million. Williams anchored the newscast for NBC.
While it’s not unusual for ABC to win some individual days in the ratings, NBC has been consistently winning on a week-to-week basis. On the previous Friday evening, ABC also won in the ratings by almost 400,000 viewers. News of Williams’ Iraq tale came out on Wednesday of last week.
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