According to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir averaged 7.4 million total viewers and 1.34 million adults 25-54 for the week of May 30, making it once again the most-watched show (in total viewers) on U.S. TV, excluding sports and syndicated programming. ABC’s evening newscast has now defeated its competition from NBC and CBS 183 of the past 184 weeks in average total viewers—and 112 of the last 114 weeks among adults 25-54.
Influenced by the Memorial Day holiday at the start of the week, World News Tonight shed -4% in total viewers and -8% in the adults 25-54 demo from the previous week, which featured coverage of the Uvalde school shooting. WNT did gain +1% in total viewers and +2% among adults 25-54 from the same week in 2021 (May 31), making it the only evening newscast to post year-over-year viewer growth.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 6.06 million total viewers on NBC this past week, making it the 3rd-most-watched program on all of TV (excluding sports/specials and syndie). The 6.06 million total viewer average is -5% from the previous week and -4% from the comparable week in 2021. NBC Nightly News also averaged 976,000 adults 25-54 this past week, which is -8% from the previous week and -13% from what the broadcast drew in the year-ago week.
Savannah Guthrie anchored Nightly News Wednesday and Tom Llamas anchored the newscast on Thursday and Friday.
Additionally, on YouTube, full episodes of NBC Nightly News reached an average of 674,000 video views and 528,000 viewers last week. That’s according to Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4.3 million total viewers and just 706,000 adults 25-54 for the week of May 30. That’s -8% when it comes to total viewers—and -14% in adults 25-54 from the previous week. Relative to the year-ago week, Evening News lost -12% in total viewers and -19% among adults 25-54.
On Memorial Day Monday, all three newscasts were coded as specials. On Thursday, World News Tonight was retitled to “WNT-ABC” due to Game 1 of the NBA Finals. NBC Nightly News was retitled to “NBC Nitely News” on Thursday due to the presidential address. These telecasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages. ABC’s and NBC’s weekly averages are based on three days (Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday) and CBS’ averages are based on four days (Tuesday-Friday).
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of May 30, 2022:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,400,000 | 6,062,000 | 4,300,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,341,000 | 976,000 | 706,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 5/30/22), Previous Week (w/o 5/23/22) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 5/31/21). Most Current: 2021-2022 Season (9/20/21 – 6/5/22) and 2020-2021 Season (9/21/20 – 6/6/21). 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.