Top-ranked ABC World News Tonight with David Muir won the final week of the 2022 calendar year, not only in average total viewers but also in the Adults 25-54 demo. This now means ABC’s evening newscast has defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 213 of the past 214 weeks in average total viewers—and 141 of the last 143 weeks among adults 25-54.
With Mary Bruce sitting in for Muir, World News Tonight averaged 8.42 million total linear viewers during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, a -5% loss from the previous week (the week of Dec. 12) but still No. 4 on all of U.S. television, excluding sports programming. WNT also averaged 1.36 million viewers from the key A25-54 demo for the week, which is down -13% from the prior week. Compared to the same week in 2021, ABC’s evening newscast is -4% in total viewers—and -15% in A25-54 viewers.
World News Tonight finished 2022 as the No. 1 evening newscast in Total Viewers for the sixth consecutive year, and No. 1 in Adults 25-54 for the 3rd straight year,
With Tom Llamas as guest anchor, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt remained the second-ranked evening newscast, averaging 7.21 million total viewers along with 1.205 million A25-54 during the week in between Christmas and New Year’s. That’s a loss of -8% and -11%, respectively, from what the newscast drew in those measurements the week prior. However, Nightly News dropped less than -1% in total viewers—and -3% in A25-54 viewers from the year-ago week, miniscule year-over-year declines relative to what ABC and CBS saw.
According to data from Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals—and the YouTube Analytics Portal, full weekday episodes of NBC Nightly News earned an average of 797,000 views and 634,000 total viewers streaming via YouTube.
With Jericka Duncan as guest anchor, the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.15 million total viewers this past week, which is -7% from the previous week —but steady with the year-ago week. The newscast averaged 773,000 adults 25-54 this past week, which is -11% from the previous week—and -13% from the year-ago week.
Note: On Monday, Dec. 26, World News Tonight and CBS Evening News were coded as specials due to the Christmas holiday. On Friday, Dec. 30, World News Tonight was retitled to “WNT-ABC,” CBS Evening News was retitled to CBS Evening Nws,” and NBC Nightly News was retitled to “NBC Nitely News” due to the New Year’s holiday. The specialed and retitled telecasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages. ABC’s and CBS’ weekly averages are based on 3 days (Tuesday-Thursday), while NBC’s weekly averages are based on 4 days (Monday-Thursday).
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of Dec. 26, 2022:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,418,000 | 7,210,000 | 5,150,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,358,000 | 1,205,000 | 773,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 12/26/22), Previous Week (w/o 12/19/22) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 12/27/21). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19/22 – 1/1/23), Season 2021-2022 (9/20/21 – ½/22). 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.