A different week, yet the trend remained the same: ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the top-rated evening newscast.
With its week of March 6, 2023 win, ABC News’ evening offering has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 223 of the past 224 weeks in average total viewers—and 152 of the last 154 weeks among Adults 25-54. World News Tonight also finished the week as U.S. TV’s most-watched show across broadcast and cable — marking four consecutive weeks at No. 1 in average total viewers.
According to live plus same day data from Nielsen, World News Tonight averaged 8.4 million total linear viewers for the week of March 6, a +32,000 viewer gain (+.04%) from the previous week (the week of Feb. 27), along with 1.3 million viewers from the key A25-54 demo, which is only -1,000 A25-54 viewers (a -0.1% loss) relative to that same week. Compared to the year-ago week (March 7, 2022)—which featured in-depth coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war’s early days—World News Tonight is -6% in total viewers and lost more than 1/5 of its A25-54 audience (-22%).
Like World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt held pretty steady in total audience relative to the week prior. The newscast averaged 7.07 million total viewers on linear for the week of March 6, making it the third-most-watched regularly-scheduled show of the week—excluding sports, specials and syndication. The 7.07 million average is +2,000 total viewers (+0.03% gain) from what the newscast averaged the previous week. Among Adults 25-54, however, Nightly News averaged 1.1 million this past week, which is -4% from the week prior. The newscast is also -3% in total viewers and -21% among Adults 25-54 from the comparable week in 2022.
Additionally, according to data from Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals—and the YouTube Analytics Portal, full weekday episodes of Nightly News earned an average of 902,000 views and 646,000 total viewers streaming via YouTube.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4.97 million total viewers this past week, a -3% drop from the previous week and -5% vs. the year-ago week. The newscast continues to struggle with Adults 25-54, averaging 718,000 this past week — a -5% decline from the week prior and a -15% from the year-ago week.
Margaret Brennan and James Brown guest-anchored the CBS newscast (separately) from Wednesday, March 8-Friday, March 10.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of March 6, 2023:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 8,396,000 | 7,070,000 | 4,967,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,297,000 | 1,098,000 | 718,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 3/6/23), Previous Week (w/o 2/27/23) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 3/7/22). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19/22 – 3/12/23), Season 2021-2022 (9/20/21 – 3/13/22). 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.