All three evening newscasts grew their total viewer audiences last week compared to the same week last year. “NBC Nightly News” with Brian Williams” remains the #1 evening newscast with more than a half million viewer lead on #2 “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.” But the ABC broadcast continues to close the gap which last year stood at 874,000 viewers. The younger viewer gap has also narrowed by -78%.
On Good Friday, “ABC World News” was retitled “Wrld News Tonite” and is excluded from the average. Due to NCAA Basketball “CBS Evening News” aired with low coverage leaving Thursday and Friday out of the average. Only “NBC Nightly News” is based on all 5 days.
Numbers for the week of March 25, 2013:
This also closes out the first quarter of 2013. For the quarter, “Nightly News” wins in both measurements, but is down -2% in total viewers and down -4% in younger viewers compared to Q1 2012. Both “World News” and “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” grew viewership. ABC is up +4% in total viewers and +2% in younger viewers while CBS is up +7% and 1%, respectively. It was CBS’ best Q1 in total viewers since 2007.
Numbers for Q1 2013:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,008,000 | 8,251,000 | 7,040,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,434,000 | 2,153,000 | 1,977,000 |