ABC, NBC and CBS all delivered year-over-year gains in the evenings this past week when it came to the advertiser-friendly Adults 25-54 demo. This is based on Live+SD data from Nielsen.
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir moved back into the No. 1 spot in total viewers, defeating NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt for the 3rd time in the first four weeks of the 2016-2017 season. Season to date, World News ranks No. 1 in total audience for the first time in 17 years – since the 1999-00 season, and is drawing its largest overall viewer audience in 13 years – since the 2003-04 season (when Peter Jennings was in the chair). WNT improved from the comparable week in 2015, up 6 percent in total viewers and +1.5 percent in the key A25-54 demo.
Nightly News dropped to back to No. 2 in total viewers, but continues to dominate ABC and CBS in the news demo. NBC maintained its No. 1 ranking in the demo last week, and delivered a +9 percent year-over-year gain in the category. The newscast also improved +16 percent in A18-49, and has ranked No. 1 among A25-54 and A18-49 for 63 of the last 64 weeks.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley was once again preempted on Thursday due to Thursday Night Football. The program experienced a year-over-year decline of 1 percent in total viewers, but grew 8 percent in the news demo from this same week last year. CBS televised Thursday Night Football that week as well.
Due to Thursday Night Football, CBS Evening News ratings are based on 4 days (Mon-Wed and Fri).
Evening newscast numbers for the week of Oct. 10:
| NBC | ABC | NBC | CBS |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,290,000 | 8,045,000 | 6,554,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,757,000 | 2,013,000 | 1,537,000 |