NBC News chief Deborah Turness has millions of reasons to save Brian Williams.
Without its chief anchor to keep it at the front of the news pack, “NBC Nightly News” is at risk of losing the multimillion dollar ad premium it has over rivals.
“Nightly News” raked in an estimated $200 million in annual ad revenue for NBC News in 2013. That’s $30 million more than its nearest rival, ABC’s “World News,” generated in 2013, and $50 million more than third place “CBS Evening News,” according to the latest full-year figures from Kantar Media.
If NBC loses its foothold among viewers ages 25 to 54, the key news audience for advertisers, it could cost parent company Comcast Corp., which installed Turness to focus on making the news division more profitable.
While the evening newscasts are bleeding younger viewers, “Nightly News” remains the most-watched among the three networks’ news shows, thanks to Williams, who is — or at least was until his tall chopper tale — the most popular evening news anchor.
“If what he’s apologized for is all there is, the problem will go away,” news analyst Andrew Tyndall told The Post. “If he withheld other things and it comes to light, he’s in deep trouble.”
Even before the Williams scandal, news rivals were closing the ratings and advertising gap.
In the first nine months of 2014, ABC’s ad dollars trailed NBC by just $5 million, with “Nightly News” at $148.4 million and “World News” at $143.7 million. CBS’s “Evening News” notched $117 million through September.
The difference may turn out to be even smaller. The figures don’t include the final quarter of the year, when “World News” incoming anchor David Muir won the November sweeps in the key advertiser demo.
Turness, who joined NBC in August 2013 from the UK’s ITV, has been battling enemy fire from ABC News ever since her arrival.
Amid the chaos of a “Meet the Press” meltdown and a “Today” show that lost its ratings crown to ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Williams’ newscast was a rare bright spot.
Turness hasn’t publicly backed Williams or suggested she’s bent on saving him.
“We’re working on what the best next steps are — and when we have something to communicate we will of course share it with you,” she said in a memo to staffers Friday.
Earlier in the day, NBC News began an internal investigation into William’s fake tale of incoming fire aboard a helicopter in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the names that could replace him have already begun to circulate, from Lester Holt and Matt Lauer to external candidates including Yahoo’s Katie Couric and CNN’s Jake Tapper.