ABC’s World News Tonight remains the top-ranked evening newscast on television.
For the week of March 2, the David Muir-anchored newscast averaged 9.1 million Total Viewers and more than 1.8 million Adults 25-54, per data from Nielsen. That’s +1.1 million Total Viewers, and +66,000 Adults 25-54 more than its NBC rival.
World News Tonight has now defeated NBC Nightly News in both of the aforementioned measures for 12 consecutive weeks. The broadcast has been No. 1 in Total Viewers all 24 weeks of the broadcast season to-date, and No. 1 in Total Viewers for the last 67 weeks overall.
World News Tonight is nearly doubling its lead over NBC Nightly News from last season (+90% – 901,000 vs. 474,000) to its largest season lead in 24 years since the 1995-1996 season. ABC’s evening newscast is also beating CBS Evening News by an average of +3.2 million, its biggest Total Viewer season advantage in at least 28 years.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt is stuck in second place among the evening newscasts. However, it did grow its audience from the prior week. Season to date, Nightly’s total viewer advantage vs. CBS is up from last season and the best in 6 seasons.
CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell remained No. 3 in the evening newscast hierarchy in all audience measurements.
Due to Super Tuesday coverage, ABC decided to exclude its Tuesday telecast from the weekly ratings averages, and was only rated for four nights. CBS excluded both its Tuesday and its Friday telecasts from its weekly ratings averages, and was only rated for three nights. NBC, on the other hand, was rated for all five nights (Monday-Friday).
Compared to the same week in 2019, were ratings down, once again. World News Tonight was -2% in Total Viewers and -5% in Adults 25-54. NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News were both down -6% in Total Viewers, and -10% in Adults 25-54.
Evening News Ratings for the Week of March. 2
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,135,000 | 8,044,000 | 5,954,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,819,000 | 1,753,000 | 1,144,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 3/2/20), and Year-Ago Week (w/o 3/4/19). Most Current: 2019-2020 Season (9/23/19-3/8/20) and 2018-2019 Season (9/24/18-3/10/19). 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 3/2/20 based on Total Day.
World News Tonight’s ratings also include 3:30pm airings in Los Angeles and San Francisco.