NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt was the No. 1 evening news program for the eighth consecutive week, and has finished No. 1 in A25-54 for 57 of the last 58 weeks. That said, the juggernaut saw its total viewer advantage shrink from the same week last year. Nightly fell 3 percent in total viewers and fell 2 percent in the key A25-54 demo from the same week in 2015 (week of Aug. 31).
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir crept closer to Nightly News in average total viewers. World News improved 3 percent in the category from the same week in 2015, but fell 8 percent in the news demo from the same week last year.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley delivered year-over-year improvements, both in total viewers (+.4 percent) and in A25-54 (+2 percent). The program still lags far behind NBC and ABC in total viewers, but moved closer to ABC in the news demo.
*Due to an NFL preseason game, Nightly News was re-titled on Thursday, while ABC and CBS were rated on all five nights. Nightly’s ratings from the same week a year ago were also based on a 4-day average due to sports in several markets.
Numbers for the week of August 29, 2016:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,037,000 | 7,934,000 | 6,557,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,970,000 | 1,663,000 | 1,457,000 |