Evening News Ratings: Week of Oct. 1

New week, similar result: ABC has the No. 1 evening newscast in total viewers, and NBC takes top honors in the evenings among younger news viewers, including A25-54.

All evening newscasts were significantly down vs. the comparable week in 2017. This is especially surprising for World News Tonight, which has been posting year-over-year audience growth in recent weeks.

Anchored by David Muir, World News defeated NBC Nightly News by +572,000 total viewers, widening its lead year to year by +55 percent (vs. 370,000 on week of Oct. 2, 2017).  In addition, the ABC evening newscast has won the last 34 weeks in total viewers.

That said, the newscast was -5 percent in total viewers, and -15 percent in the key A25-54 demo vs the same week last year.

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt finished No. 1 in the key A25-54 demographic for the 13th out of the past 14 weeks, out performing ABC by +10 percent, and CBS by +47 percent in the category.

Despite the victory, Nightly News was -14 percent in the aforementioned demo vs. last year, and -7 percent in total viewers vs. last year.

Holt is presently on his third Across America tour, which started yesterday in Houston. Holt will also visit Montgomery, Ala.; Tampa, Fla.; Kansas City, Mo., and San Diego. reporting on local stories that impact each community, but also have national implications.

CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor remains in third place. The newscast was -11 percent in total viewers and -17 percent in the key A25-54 demo last week vs. the same week in 2017.

Like Holt, Glor is on the road this week as well. He’s anchoring the CBS Evening News from battleground states with competitive races, and also interviewing candidates and voters there about the issues they actually care about.

Week of Oct. 1, 2018:

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 10/1/18, and 10/2/17. Averages based on regular telecasts.