It was quite a successful week for the Alphabet. First, there was the news that Game 1 of the 2016 NBA Finals set ratings records for the network. Now, it appears World News Tonight with David Muir earned “most-watched evening news program” status for a third consecutive week, marking the first time since April 2015 that the program has achieved this feat. WNT is currently delivering its largest viewership in 9 years. That being said, the program was down two percent in total viewers and down 13 percent in the news demo from the comparable week in 2015.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt finished No. 1 in the news demo. This has been the case every week since Nov. 23, 2015. Nightly’s A25-54 delivery, 1.880 million viewers, represents a four-week high for the program. Nightly was down 1 percent in total viewers but up 4 percent in the demo year-over-year.
The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley was slightly down in total viewers (-1 percent) but continues to perform well in the news demo (+5 percent) year-over-year.
*Due to the Memorial Day holiday and the NBA Finals, NBC and CBS are based on a 4-day average (Tues-Fri), while ABC is based on a 3-day average (Tues, Weds and Fri).
Numbers for the week of May 30, 2016:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,705,000 | 7,769,000 | 6,530,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,880,000 | 1,717,000 | 1,467,000 |