ABC World News Tonight remains the most-watched evening newscast, and won the week of Nov. 13 in total viewers by a relatively substantial margin.
The David Muir-anchored newscast also managed to deliver +5 percent total viewer growth this past week versus last year. But like its evening news counterparts, WNT posted a double-digit audience decline among adults 25-54 (-11 percent).
The comparable Nielsen week last year was election week 2016, where younger viewers’ interest in the news was undoubtedly far greater relative to the present. This might explain why the year-over-year performance in the demo is worse than year-over-year performance in total audience.
World News has now won all 8 weeks of the broadcast season to date in total viewers, a feat it hasn’t accomplished in 21 years, and the newscast has increased its total viewers lead over NBC Nightly News for the 3rd week in row (+12 percent).
NBC Nightly News, however, remains the go-to evening newscast among younger news viewers, including the advertiser-friendly A25-54 demographic.
With yet another win in the demos, the Lester Holt-anchored newscast has now been No. 1 among adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 for 119 of the last 120 weeks, and a whopping 74 consecutive weeks.
On the downside, Nightly News was -3 percent in total viewers and -19 percent in the demo relative to last year.
The CBS Evening News anchored by Anthony Mason was -8 percent in total viewers, and -20 percent in the key demo this past week versus last year. Jeff Glor will assume permanent Evening News anchor duties in the very near future.
*Due to Thursday Night Football (11/16/17), NBC Nightly News was retitled to NBC Nitely News and was excluded from the weekly averages. NBC’s averages are based on 4 days (Mon-Wed and Fri).
Evening newscast numbers for the week of Nov. 13:
| Network | ABC | NBC | CBS |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,138,000 | 8,481,000 | 6,712,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,848,000 | 1,923,000 | 1,439,000 |