ABC World News Tonight is becoming the dominant evening newscast during the 2019-2020 season. Not only does the David Muir-anchored program continue to average the most total viewers, but it has now averaged more adults 25-54 than both of its competitors for 7 consecutive weeks.
In fact, World News Tonight is No. 1 in both Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 season to date for the first time in 24 years—since the 1995-1996 season.
The ABC evening newscast out-delivered its main rival NBC Nightly News by more than 1 million viewers on average this past week, the 4th consecutive week it has accomplished that feat. It also nearly doubled its average total audience lead lead year to year (+88%; vs. 580,000), winning all 19 weeks of the season and the last 62 weeks overall in Total Viewers.
In addition, World News Tonight is leading NBC by its largest A25-54 demo margin (+36,000) in 24 years and taking the top spot for the first time at this point of a season in 12 years—since the 2007-2008 season.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt held up as the No. 2 evening newscast this past week, while CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell remained in a distant 3rd place.
Compared to the same week 1 year ago, which was an unusually strong week for all 3 newscasts, ABC, NBC and CBS were all down. Way down.
World News Tonight, despite winning the week, was -8% in total viewers and -14% in Adults 25-54 from that same week last year. Nightly News was -14% in total viewers and -24% in demo viewers. CBS Evening News posted the most severe year-over-year losses, -18% in total viewers, and -29% in adults 25-54.
The averages for the week of Jan. 27, 2020:
| Network | ABC | NBC | CBS |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,309,000 | 8,216,000 | 5,924,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,840,000 | 1,715,000 | 1,063,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 1/27/20), and Year-Ago Week (w/o 1/28/19). Most Current: 2019-2020 Season (9/23/19-2/2/20) and 2018-2019 Season (9/24/18-2/3/19). Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. Averages based on regular telecasts.