Whatever turmoil may be taking place at ABC News behind the scenes, it certainly isn’t hurting Nielsen ratings for the network’s evening newscast right now.
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remained No. 1 in the evenings, averaging 8.24 million total viewers and 1.31 million A25-54 viewers (a six-week high in demo viewers) for the week of March 27, 2023, as per live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen.
World News Tonight regained +2% in total viewers and +5% in A25-54 viewers from the previous week (w/o March 20). It’s likely many of these viewers were checking out weekday March Madness action the previous week on other networks. Compared with the same week in 2022 (March 28), however, the Muir-led newscast shed -1% in average total viewers but -14% in the younger Adults 25-54 demo.
ABC’s evening newscast has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 175 of the past 176 weeks in average total viewers—and 104 of the last 106 weeks among Adults 25-54.
With Muir anchoring from Rolling Fork, Miss., World News Tonight also posted its largest advantage over the competition in total viewers in 11 weeks and largest advantage over the competition in the key A25-54 demo in more than four months – since the weeks of Jan. 9, 2023 and Nov. 14, 2022, respectively
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 6.71 million total viewers (No. 6 among regularly-scheduled broadcast and cable TV programming) to go with 1.04 million A25-54 viewers during the week of March 28. That’s -1% in total viewers and -2% in adults 25-54 from the previous week. Compared to the same week in 2022 (March 28), the newscast shed -4% in total viewers and -17% among Adults 25-54.
According to Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal, full weekday episodes of NBC Nightly News on YouTube reached an average of 991,000 views and 766,000 viewers last week.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4.82 million total viewers and 769,000 Adults 25-54 for the week of March 27. That’s a loss of -4% in total viewers but a +2% gain in A25-54 viewers from the week of March 20, which only included three days of rated broadcasts due to Thursday/Friday March Madness coverage on CBS.
CBS Evening News shed -3% in average total viewers but -11% in A25-54 viewers from the year-ago week. (Notice a trend? Americans under 55 are turning off linear TV news, while their elders continue to tune in).
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of March 27, 2023:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,237,000 | 6,708,000 | 4,817,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,307,000 | 1,038,000 | 769,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 3/27/23), Previous Week (w/o 3/20/23) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 3/28/22). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19/22-4/2/23) and Season 2021-2022 (9/20/21-4/3/22). 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.