ABC World News Tonight with David Muir continues to gain steam in 2019. ABC’s evening newscast finished No. 1 in the genre among for the week of March 18. That’s No. 1 in total viewers for the 25th time in the past 26 weeks, and No. 1 among adults 25-54 for third time in the past four weeks.
World News has also managed to its close the demo gap by 66 percent vs. this point last season.
However, not all was great for World News on the ratings front. The newscast posted a -5 percent loss in total viewers and a -10 percent loss among adults 25-54 vs. the comparable week in 2018.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt ranked second across the board once again, and is clinging to its season to-date lead in the key A25-54 demo. Yet it still does lead ABC in this point in the season by +43,000 (+2 percent) in the demo and CBS by +608,000 (+47 percent) in the demo.
Versus the comparable week in 2018, Nightly News was -10 percent in total viewers and -20 percent in A25-54 viewers.
CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor had similar year-over-year dropoff, -9 percent in total viewers and -22 percent in A25-54 viewers.
As was the case during the comparable week in 2018, due to the live coverage of the NCAA Tournament, CBS Evening News was retitled on Thursday and Friday. Those days are excluded from their average.
Nielsen ratings for the week of March 18:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,657,000 | 7,684,000 | 6,273,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,732,000 | 1,644,000 | 1,264,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD, 2018-19 Current Week (w/o 3/18/19), Previous Week (w/o 3/11/19) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 3/19/18). Season to date: Most Current: 2018 -2019 Season (9/24/18 – 3/24/19) and 2017-2018 Season (9/25/18 – 3/25/18). Averages based on regular telecasts.