ABC World News Tonight with David Muir is the top-rated national evening newscast yet again.
For the week leading into Memorial Day, ABC News’ evening juggernaut averaged 7.40 million total viewers and more than 1.14 million A25-54 viewers. That’s according to live plus same day data from Nielsen for the week beginning May 22, 2023.
WNT marked its ninth consecutive week as the most-watched regularly-scheduled U.S. show across broadcast and cable, and has now defeated its evening news competition from NBC and CBS 234 of the past 235 weeks in average total viewers—and 163 of the last 165 weeks among Adults 25-54.
World News Tonight gained less than +1% in total viewers (+7,000) and gained +2% A25-54 viewers compared to the week before (week of May 15). Additionally, ABC’s evening newscast lost -4% in total viewers and shed a whopping -22% in A25-54 viewers vs. the same week one year ago (May 23, 2022), as Americans under 55 increasingly leave linear TV news, while their elders continue to tune in.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 5.90 million total viewers (No. 8 among all regularly-scheduled broadcast and cable TV programming) and 860,000 Adults 25-54 for the week of May 22. Unlike the competition, Nightly News gained total viewers from the previous week (+1%). However, the newscast lost -2% in A25-54 viewers. Compared to the same week in 2022, Nightly News shed -8% in total viewers and -19% 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 806,000 views and 709,000 total viewers last week.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4.35 million total viewers and 657,000 Adults 25-54 for the week of May 22, up +2% and +5%, respectively, from what the newscast drew in those measurements the prior week. The CBS Evening News is -7% in total viewers and -20% in A25-54 viewers from the year-ago week.
Additionally, on Friday May 26, World News Tonight was retitled to “WNT-ABC,” CBS Evening News was retitled to “CBS Evening Nws,” and NBC Nightly News was retitled to “NBC Nitely News” due to Memorial Day weekend. The retitled telecasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages. ABC’s, CBS’ and NBC’s while averages are based on four days (Mondays-Thursday). ABC and CBS evening news ratings for the pre-Memorial Day week in 2022 are also based on just four days (also excluding that Friday), while NBC’s evening ratings were based on just three days (excluding Wednesday and Friday)
Nielsen live-plus-same-day viewer averages for the week of May 22, 2023:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,403,000 | 5,904,000 | 4,347,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,144,000 | 860,000 | 657,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 5/22/23), Previous Week (w/o 5/15/23) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 5/23/22). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19/22-5/28/23) and Season 2021-2022 (9/20/21-5/29/2023). 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.