ABC World News Tonight with David Muir is the No. 1 evening newscast for the second quarter of 2023.
According to live plus same day data from Nielsen, ABC’s evening newscast averaged 7.69 million total viewers and 1.19 million adults 25-54 in Q2 2023. World News Tonight has now averaged the largest total audience of any U.S. evening newscast for the last 25 quarters and the largest A25-54 audience for the last 14 quarters—since Q2 2017 and Q1 2020, respectively.
However, ABC News’ evening program shed total viewers (-11%) and Adults 25-54 (-15%) from Q1 of 2023. To be fair, Q1 is when the evening news typically hits its ratings peak for the year (cold weather months for most of the country/fewer TV sports preemptions).
World News Tonight also dropped viewers relative to the year-ago quarter (Q2 2022), -3% in total viewers and -16% in A25-54 viewers. World News Tonight’s ratings decline from last year, particularly among Adults 25-54, isn’t particularly surprising. After all, younger viewers have been leaving broadcast and cable linear news on an annual basis in recent years.
Over on NBC, Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 6.315 million total viewers and 974,000 viewers from the key A25-54 demo in Q2 ’23. That’s -14% in total viewers and -21% in A25-54 viewers from Q1 of 2023. Nightly also saw a drop of -3% in total viewers and a -10% drop off in A25-54 versus the most recent spring quarter (Q2 2022).
Additionally, according to Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal, full episodes of NBC Nightly News on YouTube reached an average of 1.1 million views and 865,000 viewers in Q2 2023.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4.55 million total viewers and 695,000 adults 25-54 in Q2 of 2023. That’s -15% in total viewers and -16% among Adults 25-54 from Q1 2023. Similar to NBC, CBS Evening News dropped -3% among total viewers and -10% in A25-54 viewers vs. the year-ago quarter (Q2 2022).
The three evening newscasts averaged a combined 18.55 million total viewers in Q2 2023, a -3% change from Q2 2022. The story is bleaker when it comes to viewers under 55, however. The three newscasts averaged a total of 2.86 million Adults 25-54, which is -12% from the year ago quarter.
The evening news audience averages for Q2 2023:
| Network | ABC | NBC | CBS |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,686,000 | 6,315,000 | 4,553,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,187,000 | 974,000 | 695,000 |
How about the final week of the quarter, which started June 19, 2023?
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remained No. 1 across the board, averaging 7.385 million total viewers and 1.10 million A25-54 viewers, as per live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen.
World News Tonight has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 167 of the past 169 weeks in average total viewers—and 1 of the last 1 weeks among Adults 25-54.
With Muir off air this past week, the ABC’s evening newscast dropped -1% in total viewers and -3% in A25-54 viewers from the previous week (June 12). Compared with the same week in 2022 (June 20), the Muir-led newscast gained +2% in total viewers but lost -15.5% in A25-54.
On Thursday (June 12), World News Tonight was retitled to “WNT-ABC” due to ABC’s broadcast of the 2023 NBA Draft. The retitled telecast is excluded from the weekly and season averages. ABC’s weekly averages are based on four days (Monday-Wednesday and Friday).
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt narrow the gap with ABC substantially, averaging 6.22 million total viewers (No.2 among regularly-scheduled broadcast and cable TV programming) to go with 988,000 A25-54 viewers during the week of June 19. The 6.22 million total viewer average represents an eight-week high, while the 988,000 A25-54 average represents an 11 week high for the newscast. Nightly News gained +0.2% in total viewers and +8% in A25-54 viewers from the week prior. Additionally, NBC’s evening newscast gained +2% in total viewers and +3% in A25-54 from the year-ago week; the only evening newscast to post year-over-year gains in the key measurements.
According to Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal, full episodes of NBC Nightly News on YouTube reached an average of one million views and 795,000 viewers last week.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged more than 4.47 million total viewers and 686,000 adults 25-54 for the week of June 19. That’s -2% in total viewers and -2% among A25-54 viewers from the previous week. Additionally, CBS Evening News is -1.5% in average total viewers and -8% in A25-54 viewers from the year-ago week.
O’Donnell was on vacation this past week.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of June 19, 2023:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,385,000 | 6,217,000 | 4,471,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,101,000 | 988,000 | 686,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 6/19/23), Previous Week (w/o 6/12/23) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 6/20/22). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19/22-6/25/23) and Season 2021-2022 (9/20/21-6/26/2023). Live+7/Most Current – 2Q23: 3/27 – 6/25/22, 2Q22: 3/28 – 6/26/22 and 1Q23: 12/26/22 – 3/26/23. 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.