On the week leading up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the NBC Nightly News topped all networks in Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo.

In both categories, NBC and CBS’ Evening News showed week-to-week growth. Nightly News was the only newscast to show year-to-year gains in both categories.

With the Olympics officially beginning Friday, NBC’s weekend Nightly News broadcasts put up big numbers, with 11,144,000 Total Viewers on Saturday and 14,371,000 on Sunday. The figures were the highest since the first weekend of the 2006 Olympics.

Total Viewers: NBC: 7,770,000 / ABC: 7,190,000 / CBS: 5,990,000

25-54 demo: NBC: 2,400,000 / ABC: 2,150,000 / CBS: 1,900,000

25-54 rating: NBC: 1.9/8 / ABC: 1.7/8 / CBS: 1.5/6

• Related: The Nightly News Web site has beaten all ABC News and CBS News shows combined in video streams since it launched in January, by more than two million streams each month so far.