Another week, another win for ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, both in Total Viewers and in Adults 25-54.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt remained the No. 2 evening newscast in the key categories of Total Viewers and Adults 25-54, while the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell remained in 3rd place for the week of Feb. 10.
World News Tonight has now won all 21 weeks of the season in Total Viewers and the last 64 weeks overall.
On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, (Monday, Feb. 10), WNT scored its most-watched telecast (10 million) in nearly 1 year – since Feb. 25, 2019.
Season to date, World News Tonight ranks No. 1 in Total Viewers at this point of the season for the 3rd consecutive year, and is nearly doubling its lead over its NBC competition from last season (+98% – 857,000 vs. 432,000) to its largest season lead in 24 years—since the 1995-1996 season.
Additionally, the ABC newscast, is No. 1 for the season in Adults 25-54, taking the top spot for the first time at this point of a broadcast season in 12 years—since 2007-2008.
However, for all of those positives, World News Tonight is not necessarily thriving in the demo. In reality, it’s just shedding a smaller percentage of viewers than its rivals.
Case in point: Compared to the same week 1 year ago, CBS Evening News was -12% in Total Viewers and -20% in Adults 25-54. NBC Nightly News was -10% in Total Viewers and -20% in Adults 25-54. ABC World News Tonight was -4% in Adults 25-54, and -14% in Total Viewers.
Still, the 3 newscasts combined to averaged 22.8 million viewers last week. That’s a pretty big number.
The averages for the week of Feb. 10, 2020:
| Network | ABC | NBC | CBS |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,019,000 | 7,870,000 | 5,883,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,728,000 | 1,634,000 | 1,098,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 2/10/20), and Year-Ago Week (w/o 2/11/19). Most Current: 2019-2020 Season (9/23/19-2/16/20) and 2018-2019 Season (9/24/18-2/17/19). Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. Averages based on regular telecasts.