With Lester Holt, David Muir and Scott Pelley all on break, each of the three major evening newscasts posted year-over-year declines during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, both in total viewers and in the key news demo.
ABC World News Tonight, anchored by Tom Llamas for the entire week, earned another No. 1 finish in total viewers, but was -8 percent in the category from the same week last year. WNT was also -13 percent from last year in A25-54 viewers.
NBC Nightly News was anchored by Peter Alexander on Monday and Friday, and Tamron Hall on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The newscast ranked No. 1 among adults 25-54, but was -7 percent in the category from last year. Nightly also posted a -5 percent decline in total viewers from last year. Nightly has now ranked No. 1 in the news demo for 74 of the past 75 weeks.
CBS Evening News was anchored by Margaret Brennan on Monday and Tuesday, Elijane Quiano on Wednesday, and Reena Ninan on Thursday and Friday. The newscast posted the most significant year-over-year fall, -15 percent in total viewers and -25 percent among adults 25-54 from the comparable week last year.
*Due to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, Nightly News and World News Tonight are based on 3-day averages (Tues-Thurs). CBS Evening News is based on a 4-day average (Tue-Fri).
Numbers for the week of Dec. 26, 2016:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,946,000 | 8,802,000 | 6,656,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,959,000 | 2,128,000 | 1,477,000 |