During the week of April 17, ABC, NBC and CBS’ evening news offerings gained back some of the viewers it lost the week before.
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remains No. 1 in the genre, averaging 7.73 million total viewers and 1.27 million A25-54 viewers during the week of April 17, 2023, as per live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen.
ABC World News Tonight was still the most-watched U.S. TV show across broadcast and cable, and has now defeated its evening news competition from NBC and CBS 229 of the past 230 weeks in average total viewers—and 158 of the last 160 weeks among Adults 25-54.
ABC’s top-rated evening newscast gained +2% in total viewers and a solid +13% in A25-54 viewers compared to the week before (wk of April 10). WNT’s A25-54 demo delivery represents the largest lead over the competition since August of last year. The demo gains were perhaps aided by Muir taking his newscast to Sudan to report on the conflict in that beleaguered region. Muir’s coverage from South Sudan raised more than $4.3 million for the World Food Programme, a record amount raised from a broadcast news report per the WFP.
World News Tonight remains down year-over-year in the ratings department, however. The newscast is -5% in total viewers and -8% among A25-54 viewers vs. the same week one year ago (wk of April 18, 2022).
It’s also worth noting that on Friday, April 23, World News Tonight was retitled to “WNT-ABC” due to coverage of Game 3 of the NBA Playoff game between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks. The telecast is excluded from the weekly and season averages and ABC’s weekly averages are based on four days (Monday-Thursday).
Over on NBC, Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 6.28 million total viewers (No. 5 among all regularly-scheduled broadcast and cable TV programming) to go with 972,000 A25-54 viewers during the week of April 17. That’s +2% in total viewers and +6% in Adults 25-54 from the previous week. Compared to the same week in 2022, however, Nightly News shed -6% in total viewers and -12% among Adults 25-54.
According to Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal, full weekday episodes of NBC Nightly News on YouTube reached an average of 1.1 million views and 816,000 total viewers last week.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4.55 million total viewers with 705,000 Adults 25-54 for the week of April 17. That’s +4% in total viewers and +8% in A25-54 viewers from the previous week. However, CBS Evening News is -8% in total viewers and -11% in A25-54 viewers from the year-ago week.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day viewer averages for the week of April 17, 2023:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,733,000 | 6,278,000 | 4,546,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,271,000 | 972,000 | 705,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 4/17/23), Previous Week (w/o 4/10/23) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 4/18/22). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19/22-4/23/23) and Season 2021-2022 (9/20/21-4/2422). 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.