Here’s something you don’t read everyday: Each of the three evening newscasts posted audience growth vs. the comparable week a year ago.
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir posted the largest total audience for the 18th time in the first 19 weeks of the current broadcast season. WNT averaged a whopping 10.1 million total viewers for the week of Jan. 28, its largest total average weekly audience in over 1 year – since the week of Jan. 15, 2018.
On Wednesday, Jan. 31, World News turned in its best performance for a single-telecast in Total Viewers (10.78 million), Adults 25-54 (2.37 million) – since 1/16/18.
Versus the same week last year, the ABC evening newscast was +9 percent in total viewers, and +12 percent in A25-54 viewers.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt held onto first place among adults 25-54, still the preferred demo among news advertisers (though World News cut into that lead).
Nightly averaged 2.26 million A25-54 viewers, and 9.55 million total viewers during the week of Jan. 28, the newscast’s strongest performance since the 2018 PyeyongChang Winter Olympics. Nightly News has won the key demo 25 of the last 27 weeks.
Relative to last year, the NBC evening newscast was +11 percent in A25-54 viewers, and +9 percent in total viewers.
Despite the usual third place finish, the CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor posted growth as well! The broadcast was +5 percent in total viewers, and +3 percent in A25-54 viewers vs. the week of Jan. 29, 2018.
Numbers for the week of Jan. 28, 2019:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 10,134,000 | 9,554,000 | 7,202,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,149,000 | 2,257,000 | 1,497,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD, 2017-18 Current Week (w/o 1/28/19), and Year-Ago Week (w/o 1/29/18). Season to date: Most Current: 2018 -2019 Season (9/24/18 – 1/2/19) and 2017-2018 Season (9/25/18 – 1/3/18). Averages based on regular telecasts.