ABC World News Tonight with David Muir earned yet another evening news ratings win this past week—the week of Dec. 7— both in total viewers (9.56 million) and among adults 25-54 (1.8 million). That’s now 37 straight consecutive weekly wins for ABC’s evening newscast in those aforementioned measurements, and 107 consecutive weeks at No. 1 exclusively in total viewers; more than 2 straight years as the most-watched evening newscast.
Compared to the same week in 2019, (week of Dec. 9), World News Tonight’s ratings were great, as interest in the news, post-election and mid-pandemic, remains strong. The newscast was +11% in total viewers, and +16% among adults 25-54.
On the downside, World News Tonight was -4% in total viewers in total viewers, and -2% among adults 25-54 from the prior week (Nov. 30). That’s according to the most up-to-date data from Nielsen.
It’s worth noting that WNT was rated based on a 4-day average (Tuesday-Friday) due to NFL Coverage on Monday
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 7.9 million total viewers and 1.6 million adults 25-54 last week. Relative to the prior week, that’s -5% in total viewers and -3% among adults 25-54. Compared to the same week in 2019, the newscast was -1% in total viewers, and -5% among adults. However, it did manage to average +38% more total viewers and +49% more adults 25-54 than its CBS evening counterpart
In 3rd place, The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.7 million total viewers and 1 million adults 25-54 last week. Relative to the prior week, which was Evening News’ highest-rated week of the season to-date, that’s -10% in total viewers, and -11% A25-54 demo viewers. The year-over-year story isn’t much better, as the newscast was -1% in total viewers and -2% among adults 25-54.
All three evening newscasts lost some traction from the previous week. World News Tonight remains strong on a year-over-year basis, while NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News didn’t fare quite as well.
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. 6:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,557,000 | 7,906,000 | 5,742,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,843,000 | 1,563,000 | 1,049,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 12/7/20), Previous Week (w/o 11/30/20) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 12/9/19). Most Current: 2020 -2021 Season (9/21-12/13/19) and 2019-2020 Season (9/23-12/15/19).