ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the No. 1 evening newscast for the week of July 8, both among total viewers and among the key A25-54 demo.
In addition to averaging ~1 million more viewers than its NBC rival, World News more than doubled its margin of victory year to year (+116%) and averaged the most total viewers of any evening newscast for the 41st time out of the past 42 weeks.
World News Tonight also posted year-over-year growth in total viewers for the 6th consecutive week, is delivering its largest lead over NBC in 23 years (since the 1995-96 season) and largest total viewer lead over CBS in at least 27 years.
Despite the accolades for ABC’s flagship newscast, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt remains the No. 1 evening newscast in 2019 among adults 25-54, the category that advertisers of TV news traditionally spend their $$ on. It has won the demo 12 consecutive seasons.
Interestingly, CBS Evening News posted year-over-year growth among adults 25-54, something that rarely occurs, not just for CBS but across the evening news in general. Some nice news as the network prepares to launch CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.
Compared with the same week one year ago, World News was +4% total viewers, while Nightly News show was -4% in total viewers, and the CBS Evening News was -2%. In the A25-54 demo, WNT was -5%, Nightly was -7% and Evening News +3% vs. the week of July 9, 2018.
Numbers for the week of July 8, 2019:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,995,000 | 6,896,000 | 5,244,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,450,000 | 1,438,000 | 1,025,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD, 2018-19 Current Week (w/o 7/8/19), and Year-Ago Week (w/o 7/9/18). Season to date: Most Current: 2018 -2019 Season (9/24/18 – 7/14/19) and 2017-2018 Season (9/25/18 – 7/15/18). Averages based on regular telecasts.