As viewers for two of the three network newscasts drop off, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams has grown in viewership over the last year, and had its best Q2 in three years. The broadcast added 86,000 viewers in the second quarter of 2009 vs. Q2 '08. Not huge growth, but growth nonetheless.

By contrast, ABC World News lost 407,000 viewers compared to Q2 '08. The CBS Evening News shed 48,000 viewers compared to last year. Q2 '09 was the lowest Total Viewer delivery in Nielsen history (since the start of People Meters) for the ABC and CBS broadcasts.

For the quarter, NBC topped ABC by 797K Total Viewers and topped CBS by more than 2.5M Total Viewers.

"Nightly" EP Bob Epstein, who's been at the helm since December, tells TVNewser, "The ratings surge is a tribute to the hard work from our outstanding team, led by Brian Williams. We've stayed focused on producing in-depth coverage of the issues that matter most to our audience. I'm also extremely proud of our reports on Iran led by Richard Engel and Ali Arouzi."