Another week, another ratings win for ABC World News Tonight with David Muir. ABC’s evening newscast finished the week of June 15 not only as the No. 1 evening newscast among both Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 for the 13th consecutive week, but also as the most-watched show on U.S. television for the third straight week. World News Tonight averaged 8.74 million Total Viewers and 1.63 million A25-54 viewers for the week.
Those figures are slightly down compared with the prior week (June 8), but an improvement when compared with the same week in 2019 (June 17).
Unless a significant breaking news event transpires, one should expect to see evening news numbers decline on a weekly basis, as many parts of the country continue to reopen and the summer weather lures people away from their TVs.
Overall, World News Tonight is having its most-watched season in 17 years and strongest key Adults 25-54 performances in five years—since the 2003-04 and the 2015-16 seasons, respectively.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt finished in second place behind WNT in the key measurements, and averaged 7.44 million viewers in total to go with 1.51 million Adults 25-54, down week to week in both measurements.
According to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, Nightly was the third-most-watched program on U.S. television last week and remained No. 3 among A25-54 viewers (excluding syndication). Nightly News finished No. 4 across U.S. TV last week in Total Viewers, but climbed one spot despite a week-to-week viewership decline.
First-run broadcasts of The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 5.22 million total viewers and 922,000 A25-54 viewers this past week. Including the 4 a.m. rerun, Evening News delivered 5.73 million total and 1.06 million Adults 25-54. Those original broadcast numbers are down from the previous week and from the comparable week in 2019. Additionally, CBS News has taken out and retitled Friday Evening News broadcasts three out of past six Fridays.
For the week of June 15, CBS Evening News was -3% in Total Viewers and -7% in the A25-54 demo from the previous week, -1% in Total Viewers and -9% in demo viewers versus the year-ago week.
NBC Nightly News was -3% in Total Viewers and -6% in the key demo versus the previous week, and +6% in Total Viewers but -1% in demo viewers versus the year-ago week.
Lastly, ABC World News Tonight was -1% in Total Viewers and -3% in the demo, but +10% in Total Viewers and +9% in the demo versus the year-ago week.
*NOTE: 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.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of June 15:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,744,000 | 7,442,000 | 5,215,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,625,000 | 1,507,000 | 922,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 6/15/20), Previous Week (w/o 6/8/20) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 6/17/19). Most Current: 2019-2020 Season (9/23/19-6/21/20) and 2018-2019 Season (9/24/18-6/23/19). Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. Averages based on regular telecasts. Broadcast and Cable ranker for w/o 6/15/20 based on Total Day.