All three of the evening newscasts had much to work with during the opening quarter of 2020: An impeachment trial, the race for the 2020 Democratic party nomination for president, and most recently coverage of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
ABC World News Tonight With David Muir had a particularly good start to 2020 on the ratings front.
It was the most-watched evening newscast in Q1 for the 3rd year in a row and has led for the last 12 quarters overall in Total Viewers. It also ranked No. 1 during a first quarter in Adults 25-54 for the first time in 12 years – since Q1 of 2007. ABC World News Tonight hadn’t won any quarter in the demo since Q2 of 2018.
The newscast’s Total Viewer lead over NBC and CBS is significant.
World News Tonight out-performed NBC by its largest Total Viewer advantage in a Q1 (+1.1 million) in 25 years and biggest Total Viewer lead during any quarter in nearly 25 years – since Q1 1995 and Q4 1995, respectively. In addition, the newscast beat its NBC counterpart in the key Adults 25-54 demo (+64,000) by its largest margin during any quarter in nearly 5 years – since Q2 2015.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt remained in second place in Total Viewers, and finished in second in the key A25-54 demo. Despite earning second place, the 8.7 million viewers Nightly News averaged in Q1 represents the newscast’s best quarterly viewer delivery in two years (since Q1 2018), and its 1.955 A25-54 demo delivery is up from the prior 3 quarters. On the downside, Nightly News had won a Q1 among Adults 25-54 for 11 straight years. That obviously didn’t happen this year.
Compared with Q1 of 2019, World News Tonight was +5% in Total Viewers and +3% in A25-54. NBC Nightly News held pretty steady from the prior Q1: Flat in Total Viewers and just -1% in the demo.
The CBS Evening News With Norah O’Donnell, which did quite well last week relative to the network’s other programming, finished in 3rd place and lost steam from the prior Q1 when Jeff Glor anchored the program. Evening News was -5% in Total Viewers and -10% in the key A25-54 demo.
Numbers for Q1 2020:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,802,000 | 8,704,000 | 6,255,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,019,000 | 1,955,000 | 1,215,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Most Current – 1Q20: 12/30/19 – 3/29/20, 1Q19: 12/31/18 – 3/31/19.
*Note: Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. For instance, NBC has an additional 7:30 p.m. ET airing of Nightly News in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco. ABC has additional 7:30 p.m. ET airings in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, as well as Los Angeles and San Francisco (3:30 p.m. PT in the latter two). CBS Evening News’ ratings are comprised of telecasts with regular titling and include overnight airings on owned stations.
**Additional note: While the NBC Nightly News numbers above take into account a triple run, beginning the week of March 16, they are still considered part of the official quarter-end Nielsen ratings averages.