ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the No. 1 evening newscast for the opening quarter of 2023.
According to live plus same day data from Nielsen, ABC’s evening newscast averaged 8.65 million total viewers and 1.39 million adults 25-54 in Q1 2023. World News Tonight has now averaged the largest total audience of any U.S. evening newscast for the last 24 quarters—since Q2 2017.
Additionally, World News Tonight won the 1st quarter for the fourth year in a row, and led for the 12th consecutive quarter in all key demos, including A25-54 (since Q2 2020).
ABC News’ evening offering gained total viewers from Q4 of 2022, up +4%. However, unlike its NBC and CBS competition, the newscast shed Adults 25-54 from Q4 (-1%); and relative to the year-ago quarter (Q1 of 2022), World News Tonight lost -3% in total viewers and -16% in A25-54 viewers.
The decline from last year isn’t particularly surprising. Younger viewers continue to leave linear evening news on an annual basis. Plus, 2022 Q1 news coverage was defined by the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine — an event that attracted more TV news viewers than usual.
Over on NBC, Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 7.36 million total viewers and 1.23 million viewers from the key A25-54 demo in Q1 ’23. That’s a solid +4% improvement in total viewers and +1% in A25-54 viewers from Q4 of 2022 — marking the program’s closest A25-54 gap with ABC since 2020. However, NBC Nightly News saw a a -6% in total viewers and -11% drop off in A25-54 versus the most recent winter quarter (Q1 2022).
According to Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal, full episodes of NBC Nightly News on YouTube reached an average of 859,000 views and 682,000 viewers in Q1 2023.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.33 million total viewers and 826,000 adults 25-54 in Q1 of 2023. That’s +6% in total viewers and +2% among adults 25-54 from Q4 2022 — a larger quarter-to-quarter increase than what its competition delivered. CBS Evening News dropped -2% among total viewers and -11% in A25-54 vs. the year-ago quarter (Q1 2022).
The three evening newscasts averaged a combined 21.34 million total viewers in Q1 2023, a +5% change from Q4 ’22, but -3% from Q1 2022. The story is weaker in when it comes to Americans under 55. The three newscasts averaged a total 3.445 million adults 25-54, which is up less than +1% from Q4 of last year, but -13% from the year ago quarter.
The evening news audience averages for Q1 2023:
| Network | ABC | NBC | CBS |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,652,000 | 7,356,000 | 5,328,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,393,000 | 1,226,000 | 826,000 |
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How about the final week of the quarter, which started March 20, 2023?
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remained No. 1 in the evenings, averaging 8.07 million total viewers and 1.24 million A25-54 viewers, as per live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen.
ABC’s evening newscast has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 174 of the past 175 weeks in average total viewers—and 103 of the last 105 weeks among adults 25-54.
World News Tonight gained +1% in total viewers from the previous week (March 13), and held steady in A25-54 viewers. Compared with the same week in 2022 (March 21), which also featured the start of March Madness, however, the Muir-led newscast shed -3% in average total audience and -16% among adults 25-54.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 6.77 million total viewers (No.5 among regularly-scheduled broadcast and cable TV programming) to go with 1.05 million A25-54 viewers during the week of March 20. That’s +1% in total viewers and +2% in adults 25-54 from the previous week. Compared to the same week in 2022 (March 21), the newscast shed -1% in total viewers and -17% among adults 25-54.
According to Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal, full episodes of NBC Nightly News on YouTube reached an average of one million viewers and 808,000 viewers last week.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.02 million total viewers and 752,000 adults 25-54 for the week of March 20. That’s +3% in total viewers and +7% among adults 25-54 from the previous week.
The year-over-year ratings trend was mixed, with CBS Evening News up by +3% in average total viewers but -9% in A25-54 viewers. (Notice a trend? Americans under 55 are turning off linear TV news, while their elders continue to tune in)
Additionally, Thursday, March 23, and Friday, March 24, 2023, CBS Evening News was coded as a breakout due to coverage of the NCAA Division 1 Men’s Basketball Tournament. The telecasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages—and CBS Evening News’ weekly averages for last week are based on just three days of newscasts (Monday-Wednesday).
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of March 20, 2023:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,069,000 | 6,770,000 | 5,018,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,244,000 | 1,051,000 | 752,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 3/20/23), Previous Week (w/o 3/13/23) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 3/21/22). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19/22 – 3/26/23) and Season 2021-2022 (9/20/21 – 3/27/22). Most Current Data Stream – 1Q23: 12/26/22 – 3/26/23, 1Q22: 12/27/21 – 3/27/22 and 4Q22: 9/19/22 – 12/25/22. Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. Beginning 8/31/20, national ratings also include Out of Home (OOH) viewing. Averages based on regular telecasts.