The evening newscast numbers for the July 2016 are in, and the Peacock has come out on top. NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt was TV’s most-watched evening newscast for the 36th consecutive sweep period and finished No. 1 in the news demo for the 13th consecutive month. Despite the victory, Nightly News was down from its July 2015 sweep performance: – 4 percent in total viewers and -1 percent in the A25-54 category. July 2015 was Holt’s first month as permanent anchor for the program.
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir finished No. 2 both in total viewers and A25-54. World News improved less than 1 percent in total viewers, but lost 9.5 percent of its A25-54 audience from July 2015.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley finished No. 3 in the key categories, down 1 percent in total viewers but up 5 percent in A25-54 viewers compared to July 2015.
Numbers for the July 2016 Sweep:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,614,000 | 7,511,000 | 6,339,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,886,000 | 1,646,000 | 1,490,000 |
With viewers seemingly turning to cable news for its wall-to-wall coverage of last week’s DNC, broadcast’s evening newscasts were down compared to the same week in 2015.
Nightly News managed to win 2016 DNC week despite being down 8 percent in total viewers and down 9 percent in the demo from the same week in 2015. World News Tonight fell to Nightly News by a razor thin margin in total viewers, the tightest race for presidential convention coverage since 1996. WNT dropped 6 percent in total viewers but lost 13 percent in the demo from the same week last year. CBS Evening News was down 1 percent in total viewers and lost 3 percent in the news demo from the same week last year.
Numbers for the week of July 25, 2016:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,177,000 | 7,146,000 | 6,029,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,748,000 | 1,579,000 | 1,366,000 |