Norah O’Donnell made history last week as the new anchor of the CBS Evening News. But on the ratings front, it was ABC that came out on top.
For the second consecutive week, World News Tonight with David Muir was the No. 1 evening newscast among both total viewers and adults 25-54.
With its 7.9 million total viewer average for the week of July 15, World News has now garnered the most viewers of any evening newscast for 42 out of the past 43 weeks.
The newscast is currently leading NBC by +610,000 total viewers, delivering its largest total viewers lead in 23 years and CBS by 2.7 million, posting its biggest total viewers advantage in at least 27 years.
The ABC newscast also delivered 1.54 million adults 25-54, its largest audience in the category since the week of June 3.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt ranked No. 2 across the board for the second consecutive week. Despite finished No. 2, it’s still the No. 1 evening newscast among A25-54 viewers at this point of the season for the 12th consecutive season (+26,000 A25-54 viewers more than ABC).
The ratings results for launch week of the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell were mixed. The broadcast posted audience losses from the comparable week in 2018, and was down slightly from the prior week.
However, excluding the week of July 1, the broadcast was slightly up from the prior four-week average (5.24 million vs. 5.17 million), so it’s not totally doom and gloom for those launch week ratings.
Versus the comparable week in 2018. World News was +1% total viewers, while Nightly News was -5% in total viewers, and the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell was -5%. In the A25-54 demo, WNT was +2%, Nightly was -5% and Evening News -13% vs. the week of July 16, 2018.
Numbers for the week of July 15, 2019:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,880,000 | 6,877,000 | 5,239,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,542,000 | 1,499,000 | 982,000 |