ABC World News Tonight with David Muir earned yet another big evening news ratings win this past week—the week of Dec. 14— both in total viewers (9.7 million) and among adults 25-54 (1.8 million). That’s now 38 straight consecutive weekly wins for ABC’s evening newscast in those aforementioned measurements, and 108 consecutive weeks at No. 1 exclusively in total viewers; more than 2 straight years as America’s most-watched evening newscast.
Compared to the prior week of Dec. 7, 2020, ABC’s flagship evening newscast grew +2% in total viewers, and held flat among adults 25-54. Compared to the same week in 2019, (week of Dec. 16), the trend remained strong — up +11% in total viewers and +10% among adults 25-54.
World News Tonight is leading its NBC competition in the evening by its largest margin in 25 years in Adults 25-54 (+231,000 – 1.83 million vs. 1.60 million).
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 7.9 million total viewers and 1.5 million adults 25-54 last week. Relative to the prior week, that’s up less than +1% in total viewers but -2% among adults 25-54. Compared to the same week in 2019, the newscast was flat in total viewers, but -6% among adults. However, it did manage to average +34% more total viewers and +42% more adults 25-54 than its CBS evening counterpart. It was also the 3rd-most-watched show on all of TV last week, excluding sports and syndication programming.
Speaking of that CBS News counterpart, the Norah O’Donnell-led CBS Evening News averaged 5.9 million total viewers and 1.1 million adults 25-54 last week. Relative to the prior week, that’s +3% in total viewers, and +4% among A25-54 demo viewers. The year-over-year story isn’t bad either, as the newscast was +2% in total viewers and +1% among adults 25-54.
Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings at various times during the day and in a variety of markets, large and small. They reflect the addition of out of home (OOH) viewership that began being measured on Aug. 31 across 44 markets tracked by Nielsen.
Below, the Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of Dec. 14:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,721,000 | 7,922,000 | 5,918,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,844,000 | 1,539,000 | 1,086,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 12/14/20), Previous Week (w/o 12/7/20) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 12/16/19). Most Current: 2020 -2021 Season (9/21-12/20/19) and 2019-2020 Season (9/23-12/22/19).