ABC World News Tonight with David Muir finished the week of Jan. 24, 2022 as the No. 1 evening newscast, both in total viewers (averaging nearly 9 million) and among adults 25-54 (averaging 1.62 million).
World News Tonight also happened to be the most-watched show on U.S. TV last week—excluding sports, specials and syndication—and delivered its most-watched Friday telecast (9.44 million on Jan. 28) in one year, since Jan. 22, 2021.
Additionally, ABC’s evening newscast has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 165 of the past 166 weeks in average total viewers—and 94 of the last 96 weeks among adults 25-54. Season to date, World News Tonight (8.46 million) is ranking No. 1 in Total Viewers for the 6th consecutive year—based on Most Current Data—and No. 1 among adults 25-54 (1.56 million) for the 3rd season in a row.
World News Tonight gained less than +1% in total viewers, but lost -7% in adults 25-54 from the prior week (Jan. 17). Compared with the same week in 2021 (Jan. 25), the trend was worse, with World News Tonight losing -9% in average total audience and -18% among adults 25-54.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 7.95 million total viewers (No. 2 on all of TV, excluding sports, specials and syndie) and 1.41 million adults 25-54 during the week of Jan. 24. The newscast gained +2% in total viewers but shed -2% among adults 25-54 from the prior week. Compared to the same week in 2021, the newscast lost -4% in total viewers and -13% in adults 25-54. Despite this decline in viewership, Nightly News is closing the gap with World News Tonight season to-date (basically World News Tonight is losing more of its audience than Nightly News is).
Additionally, on YouTube, full weekday episodes of NBC Nightly News averaged 752,000 views and 599,000 viewers this past week. That’s according to data from Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.59 million total viewers and 965,000 adults 25-54 for the week of Jan. 24. The newscast shed -2% in total viewers and -1% in adults 25-54 viewers from the prior week. However, compared to the same week in 2021, Evening News was -13% in average total viewers and -18% among adults 25-54.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of Jan. 24, 2022:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,995,000 | 7,948,000 | 5,586,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,621,000 | 1,413,000 | 965,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54. Live + SD Current Week (w/o 1/24/22), Previous Week (w/o 1/17/22) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 1/25/21). Most Current: 2021-2022 Season (9/20/21 – 1/30/22) and 2020-2021 Season (9/21/20 – 1/31/21). 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.