ABC, NBC and CBS’ evening news offerings continue to shed total viewers from the previous week.
Nevertheless, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remains No. 1 in the genre, averaging just over 7.31 million total viewers and 1.25 million A25-54 viewers for the week of May 8, 2023. That’s according to live plus same day data from Nielsen.
WNT marked its seventh consecutive week as the most-watched regularly-scheduled U.S. show across broadcast and cable (excluding sports), and has now defeated its evening news competition from NBC and CBS 232 of the past 233 weeks in average total viewers—and 161 of the last 163 weeks among Adults 25-54.
World News Tonight -4% in total viewers but gained +3,000 in A25-54 viewers (+0.3%) compared to the week before (week of May 1). Additionally, ABC’s evening newscast remains down year-over-year in the linear viewing department, dropping -3% in total viewers and -10% among A25-54 viewers vs. the same week one year ago (May 9, 2022), as Americans under 55 increasingly leave linear TV news.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 5.885 million total viewers this past week (No. 11 among all regularly-scheduled broadcast and cable TV programming). While larger than CBS, that’s a very small delivery by Nightly News’ standards. The 5.885 million total viewer average is also -3% from the prior week. On the plus side, Nightly News gained +1% in A25-54 viewers from the prior week (876,000 from 869,000). Compared to the same week in 2022, however, Nightly News shed -5% in total viewers and -13% 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 888,300 views and 701,000 total viewers last week.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell saw the steepest week to week declines, averaging 4.38 million total viewers and 673,000 Adults 25-54 for the week of May 8. That’s -6% in total viewers and -3% in A25-54 viewers from the previous week. The CBS Evening News shed -2% in total viewers and -7% in A25-54 viewers from the year-ago week.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day viewer averages for the week of May 8, 2023:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,313,000 | 5,885,000 | 4,380,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,125,000 | 876,000 | 673,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 5/8/23), Previous Week (w/o 5/1/23) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 5/9/22). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19/22-5/14/23) and Season 2021-2022 (9/20/21-5/15/2023). 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.