ABC World News Tonight has averaged more total viewers than its evening news competition for a couple years now. However, it’s now giving rival NBC a run for its money in the key adults 25-54 department.
In fact, the David Muir-anchored newscast has finished No. 1 among adults 25-54 for four consecutive week, the newscast’s longest winning streak in the measurement since the weeks of May 25 – June 15, 2017.
The newscast averaged 8.07 million total viewers for the week of July 29. That’s more total viewers than NBC and CBS for 44 out of the 45 weeks of the broadcast season.
World News Tonight is delivering its largest lead in total viewers in 23 years (since the 1995-96 season) and is posting its largest lead over CBS Evening News in at least 27 years (since at least the start of Nielsen electronic database in 1991-92 season).
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt finished in second place in the relevant categories this past week. However, it is still ahead of its ABC evening competition among adults 25-54, season to-date. In fact, it’s presently No. 1 among A25-54 viewers at this point of the season for the 12th consecutive season.
Compared to the same week in 2018, ABC was +3% in total viewers, NBC was -6% in total viewers, while the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell struggled yet again, -12% year-over-year. In the A25-54 demo, ABC was -1%, NBC -6% and CBS Evening News was -11% vs. the comparable week last year.
*Note: Due to NFL Pre-Season on Thursday (8/1/19), NBC Nightly News was retitled to “NBC Nitely News.” The telecast is excluded from the weekly averages. Nightly News averages are based on 4 nights (Mon-Wed and Fri).
Numbers for the week of July 29:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,066,000 | 6,922,000 | 4,897,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,497,000 | 1,479,000 | 954,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD, 2018-19 Current Week (w/o 7/29/19), Previous Week (w/o 7/22/19) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 7/30/18). Season to date: Most Current: 2018 -2019 Season (9/24/18 – 8/4/19) and 2017-2018 Season (9/25/18 – 8/5/18). Averages based on regular telecasts.