Lester Holt Kicks Off NBC Nightly News Gig With a Jump in Ratings

NBC Nightly News does not seem to be missing Brian Williams.

Lester Holt, the Dateline anchor who took Williams’ seat after the star anchor’s February suspension, drew in a total of 8 million viewers over his first official week as chief anchor last week, the New York Times reports.

This put the Nightly News just ahead of their main competitor, ABC’s World News Tonight, which led NBC in evening news viewers from April to June but received only 7.7 million viewers this past week.

Williams, who was suspended after it emerged in February he had exaggerated an anecdote about coming under attack during a 2003 helicopter ride in Iraq, will remain with the company as an anchor for MSNBC despite being ousted from his evening news seat.

[NYT]