The ABC, NBC and CBS evening newscasts all posted single digit year-over-year total audience declines during the week of January 23, 2017.
The NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt finished No. 1 for the week, both in total viewers and in the key A25-54 demographic. Opposite ABC’s interview with Pres. Trump on Wednesday, Nightly News also managed to finish No. 1 across-the-board in total viewers (+260,000) and A25-54 viewers (+459,000). NBC has ranked No.1 in A25-54 and A18-49 during the evenings for 78 of the last 79 weeks. That said, Nightly News posted declines in total viewers (-2 percent) and the news demo (-4 percent) this past week versus the same week last year.
David Muir’s highly-anticipated interview with Pres. Trump wasn’t enough to move ABC World News Tonight past NBC in the evenings. In addition to a No. 2 ranking, World News posted year-over-year declines in total viewers (-1 percent) and the news demo (-4 percent). That said, World News is posting its closest overall viewer performance with Nightly News in 18 years – since the 1998-99 season.
The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley maintained its No. 3 ranking in key categories. The program posted a slight year-over-year decline in total viewers (-2 percent) but held steady when it came to viewers from the news demo. CBS finished just 118,000 viewers behind ABC in the A25-54 demo, its strongest performance in that category in close to a year (Feb. 12, 2016).
Numbers for the week of Jan. 23, 2017:
| NBC | ABC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,363,000 | 9,051,000 | 7,856,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,329,000 | 1,986,000 | 1,868,000 |