ABC and NBC split the evening news ratings race for the week of Oct. 28.
World News Tonight with David Muir outperformed Nightly News with Lester Holt in average total viewers last week by an average of +782,000, more than tripling its advantage year to year (+264%; vs. 215,000),
In fact, the ABC evening newscast averaged its largest overall audience in over 7 months (8.66 million) and best news demo performance in 6 months (1.66 million) – since weeks of March 4 and April 22, respectively.
On Tuesday (Oct. 29), World News scored its most-watched telecast (9.2 million) since April 15.
On Wednesday, Muir anchored live from California to cover the wildfires for the East and West Coast editions of ABC’s evening newscast.
World News Tonight may have dominated in average total viewers last week, but Nightly News averaged +2% more A25-54 viewers than ABC and +55% more A25-54 viewers than CBS. Holt was on the scene of the California wildfires and anchored the newscast from the region for three nights while hundreds of thousands were forced to evacuate. Holt anchored East and West coast editions as well.
CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell continues to grow its audience, slowly but surely, and posted its best ratings since O’Donnell took on the role of anchor on a permanent basis this past July (5.58 million total viewers).
Compared to the same week last year, World News Tonight was +5% in total viewers, and -1% in the key A25-54 demo. NBC Nightly News was -2% in total viewers and -1% among adults 25-54. The CBS Evening News was -8% in total viewers, and -9% among adults 25-54.
Average audience for the week of Oct. 28 2019:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,658,000 | 7,876,000 | 5,584,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,663,000 | 1,702,000 | 1,101,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 10/28/19, and 10/29/18. Most Current: 2019–2020 Season (9/23 – 11/3/19) and 2018–2019 Season (9/24 – 11/4/18). ABC and NBC ratings include broadcasts that air later on some stations. Averages based on regular telecasts.