While the conventional wisdom says the evening news is dying, "NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams" actually grew year-over-year, easily winning the 2008-2009 season ratings race in the process.

"NBC Nightly News" averaged 8.609 million total viewers, 10% more than ABC's second-place "World News" (7.818 million) and 42% more than the "CBS Evening News" (6.053 million).

What's more impressive, though, is the NBC broadcast's year-over-year growth. "Nightly News" added 88,000 total viewers for the 2008-2009 season, while ABC's "World News" lost 363,000 viewers and the "CBS Evening News" lost 103,000 viewers.