New week, similar trend: ABC World News Tonight with David Muir is the No. 1-rated evening newscast on television.
World News Tonight averaged 7.34 million total viewers and 1.09 million A25-54 viewers during the week of August 7, 2023, as per Nielsen live plus same day data. WNT’s 7.34 million average is +% from what the newscast averaged the previous week (July 31), while its 1.09 million average in the demo is up +% from that week.
News highlights during the comparable week in 2022 (August 8) were an FBI search at Donald Trump’s Florida residence and the attack on Salman Rushdie. Relative to that week, the Muir-helmed newscast is down -% in total viewers and a whopping -% in A25-54 viewers, as linear news continues to lose Americans under 55 years of age on an annual basis.
Despite the mixed trend, with this past week’s performance, ABC’s evening newscast has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 245 of the past 246 weeks in average total viewers—and 174 of the last 176 weeks among Adults 25-54. The week of August 7 also marked World News Tonight’s eighth consecutive week as the most watched regularly-scheduled program across U.S. broadcast and cable TV.
Elsewhere on broadcast news, for the week of August 7, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged more than 6.14 million total viewers (a seven-week high) and 1.01 million Adults 25-54 (an 18-week high). That represents solid +4% growth in total viewers and +9% growth in A25-54 viewers from the week before.
Nightly News averaged just -78,000 fewer Adults 25-54 than World News Tonight, the newscast’s most narrow A25-54 gap vs. its ABC rival in 89 weeks (since Thanksgiving week 2021).
NBC Nightly News shed just -0.4% in total viewers and -1% in A25-54 viewers from the comparable week in 2022. It was the second-most-watched regularly-scheduled program across U.S. broadcast and cable TV this past week.
Its worth noting, however, that NBC retitled Nightly News’ Friday broadcast and those numbers are removed from the show’s week of Aug. 7 ratings averages (NBC’s weekly averages are based on just four days, Monday-Thursday, whereas ABC and CBS’ are based on all five days).
Additionally, according to Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal, full episodes of NBC Nightly News on YouTube reached an average of 863,000 views and 668,000 viewers last week.
With Norah O’Donnell back in the anchor chair, The CBS Evening News saw week-to-week growth. The newscast averaged 4.34 million total viewers and 684,000 Adults 25-54 for the week of August 7, which is +3% in total viewers and a solid +16% in A25-54 viewers from the previous week. However, the newscast is down year over year (as is true for its competitors), -2% in average total viewers and -4% in A25-54 viewers.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of August 7, 2023:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,339,000 | 6,144,000 | 4,342,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,091,000 | 1,013,000 | 684,000 |