ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remained the No. 1 evening newscast in total viewers, per live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen. WNT defeated its NBC counterpart by +632,000 total viewers this past week, the newscast’s largest margin of victory over its NBC rival in 3 months–since the week of June 4. World News has been the most-watched evening newscast for 30 consecutive weeks.
Each of the three evening newscasts posted significant audience declines vs. the same week in 2017, a week which included coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and the approach of Hurricane Irma.
World News Tonight was -7 percent in total viewers and -20 percent in the key A25-54 demo vs. the same week last year, and also finished No. 2 behind NBC Nightly News in the ad-friendly A25-54 demo.
Speaking of Nightly News, the Lester Holt-anchored newscast finished ahead of ABC and CBS in the key A25-54 category for nine of the past 10 weeks. On the downside, Nightly News was -23 percent in the demo, and -12 percent in total viewers vs. the same week in 2017.
CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor was -17 percent in total viewers, and -25 percent in adults 25-54 vs. the comparable week in 2017.
Editor’s note: ABC and CBS are based on four days, removing Labor Day from the average. NBC is based on three days, removing Labor Day as well as Thursday, due to the start of the NFL regular season.
Numbers for the week of September 3, 2018:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,335,000 | 7,703,000 | 5,584,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,613,000 | 1,711,000 | 1,121,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 9/3/18, and 9/4/17. Season-to-Date: Most Current: 2017-2018 Season (9/25/17 – 9/7/18) and 2016-2017 Season (9/19/16 – 9/10/17). Averages based on regular telecasts.