ABC World News Tonight with David Muir ranked as the evening’s No. 1 newscast in total viewers (9.2 million), adults 25-54 (2.1 million) during the week of the presidential election for the first time in 24 years – since the week of the 1996 Presidential Election
World News Tonight has been the No. 1 evening newscast both in total viewers and among adults 25-54 for 32 straight weeks. It has ranked No. 1 exclusively in total viewers for 102 consecutive weeks.
WNT put up monster numbers this past week. The broadcast was +2% in total viewers and +19% among adults 25-54 versus the previous week (Oct. 26). Relative to the comparable week in 2019 (Nov. 4, 2019), World News Tonight was +5% in total viewers and +19% among adults 25-54. Lastly, relative to the previous presidential election week (week of Nov. 7, 2016), WNT was +8% in total viewers and +2% among adults 25-54.
World News Tonight was rated based on a 4-day average (Mon-Thurs) due to special report impacts on Friday.
World News Tonight was the sole network newscast to post audience growth from election week 2016. The growth among A25-54 is particularly impressive considering the changing ways in which younger audiences consume content relative to 4 years ago.
Season to date, World News Tonight ranks No. 1 both in total viewers and adults 25-54 at this point of the season for the second consecutive year, based on the most current data from Nielsen.
NBC Nightly News With Lester Holt averaged 8.1 million total viewers and 1.9 million adults 25-54 during the week of Nov. 2. That’s the newscast’s best demo performance in 27 weeks and largest average total audience in 22 weeks.
Compared to the prior week, NBC News’ flagship program was +5% in total viewers and an impressive +22% among adults 25-54 during election week. Versus the year-ago week (Nov. 4 2019), however, Nightly was -1% in total viewers but +7% among adults 25-54. Lastly, relative to the previous presidential election week (w/o Nov. 7, 2016), Nightly was -7% in total viewers and -21% among adults 25-54.
For election week 2020, first-run broadcasts of the CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged nearly 5.7 million total viewers and 1.1 million adults 25-54 viewers. This means Evening News was +3% in total viewers and +11% among adults 25-54 versus the previous week; flat in total viewers and +2% among adults 25-54 versus the comparable week in 2019. However, the newscast was -22% in total viewers and a whopping -37% among adults 25-54 relative to the week of the 2016 presidential election, when Scott Pelley was anchor.
Altogether, the big three averaged a combined total of 23.3 million total viewers during election week 2020. That’s +3% vs. the week prior, +2% vs. the year-ago week, but -6% vs. election week 2016.
The newscasts averaged a combined total of 5.1 million adults 25-54 during election week. That’s +18% vs. the prior week, +10% vs. the comparable week in 2019, but -18% vs. election week 2016.
NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News were rated based on a 3-day average (Mon, Wed, Fri) due to special report impacts on Tuesday and Thursday.
Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings at various times during the day and in a variety of markets, large and small. They reflect the addition of out of home (OOH) viewership that began being measured on Aug. 31 across 44 markets tracked by Nielsen.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of Nov. 2 (Election Week):
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,421,000 | 8,126,000 | 5,729,000 |
| • A25-54: | 2,117,000 | 1,887,000 | 1,131,000 |