For the third consecutive week, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the most-watched show on U.S. TV (excluding syndication), averaging 7.93 million total viewers and 1.41 million adults 25-54 for the week of April 25. This is according to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen.
With its performance this past week, ABC’s evening newscast has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 178 of the past 179 weeks in average total viewers—and 107 of the last 109 weeks among adults 25-54.
World News Tonight shed -3% in total viewers from the week of April 18 and -1% from the same week in 2021 (April 26). The newscast did gain some adults 25-54 from the prior week (+2%), but fell from the year-ago week (-6%).
ABC’s evening newscast did grow its lead over NBC from the previous week in Adults 25-54 (+31% – 358,000 vs. 274,000) and Adults 18-49 (+61% – 229,000 vs. 142,000), turning in its largest advantages in both measures in four months—since the week of Dec. 27, 2021.
One should take last week’s trends with a grain of salt. Nielsen ratings for World News Tonight are based on just a two-day average (Tuesday, Wednesday) with the other days retitled due to network primetime programming airing live across the U.S. on both Monday (American Idol) and Thursday/Friday (2022 NFL Draft). The Monday, Thursday and Friday telecasts of World News Tonight are being excluded from the show’s season averages.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged more than 6.57 million total viewers on NBC this past week, making it the 5th most program on all of TV (excluding sports/specials/syndie). That’s -2% from the previous week, and less than -1% from the comparable week in 2021. The evening newscast averaged just 1.05 million adults 25-54 this past week, which is -5% vs. the previous week and -14% from the year-ago week.
On YouTube, full episodes of NBC Nightly News reached an average of 830,000 video views and 657,000 video viewers last week. That’s according to Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell had a relatively low-rated week, averaging 4.63 million total viewers and just 704,000 adults 25-54 for the week of April 25. That’s -6% in total viewers, -11% among adults 25-54 from the previous week, -7% in total viewers and -15% in the demo from the year-ago week (April 26, 2021).
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of April 25, 2022:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,931,000 | 6,572,000 | 4,627,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,408,000 | 1,050,000 | 704,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 4/25/22), Previous Week (w/o 4/18/22) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 4/26/21). Most Current: 2021-2022 Season (9/20/21 – 5/2/22) and 2020-2021 Season (9/21/20 – 5/3/21). 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.