The drought has come to an end. For the first time in over three months, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the most-watched evening news program of the week, delivering an average of 7.93 million viewers for the week of May 16. That’s a 5 percent improvement from the comparable week in 2015.
The last time World News Tonight finished a week No. 1 in total viewers was the week of February 1st, 2016. Season to date, WNT is delivering its largest overall viewership in 9 years.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt may have temporarily lost its “most-watched evening newscast” status after 14 straight weeks at the top, but it still remains No. 1 in the A25-54 demo. In fact, it has been tops in the news demo for more than 10 months.
Nightly experienced a 5 percent improvement in A25-54 viewers versus the comparable week in 2015.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley experienced a bit of a down week. The program, which has been experiencing a superb 2016 to-date, was down 3 percent in total viewers and down 2 percent in the news demo versus the comparable week in 2015.
Numbers for the week of May 16, 2016:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,830,000 | 7,928,000 | 6,719,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,850,000 | 1,705,000 | 1,503,000 |