ABC World News Tonight with David Muir earned yet another massive audience this past week—the week of Nov. 30— both in total viewers (9.9 million) and among adults 25-54 (1.9 million). That’s now 36 straight consecutive weekly wins for ABC’s evening newscast in those aforementioned measurements, and 106 consecutive weeks at No. 1 exclusively in total viewers.
In addition to earning another No. 1 finish, WNT posted +3% growth in total viewers in total viewers compared to the previous week (Nov. 23 – Thanksgiving week), but was -1% among adults 25-54. That’s according to the most up-to-date data from Nielsen.
Compared to post-Thanksgiving week 2019, (week of Dec. 2), World News Tonight’s ratings were strong. The newscast was +10% in total viewers, and +8% among adults 25-54.
The 9.9 million total viewers average represents World News Tonight’s most-watched week in over 6 months – since May 11, 2020.
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. Additionally, ABC’s evening newscast is leading its NBC evening news counterpart by its largest margins in Adults 25-54, (+219,000 – 1.8 million vs. 1.6 million) and Adults 18-49 (+165,000 – 1.29 million vs. 1.1 million) in 25 years—since the 1995-1996 season.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 8.3 million total viewers last week, making it the No. 4 show on all of TV, excluding sports and syndication. Its Saturday edition ranked No. 3. The Wednesday broadcast was removed from the ratings averages due to impacts from NFL coverage in various markets across the country.
The newscast also averaged 1.6 million adults 25-54.
Relative to the prior week, Nightly was -5% in total viewers and -4% among adults 25-54. Compared to the same week in 2019, the newscast held flat in total viewers, but lost a chunk of its adults 25-54 audience (-7%). However, it did manage to average 436,000 (+37%) more adults 25-54 than its CBS counterpart in the evenings.
In 3rd place, The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 6.4 million total viewers and 1.2 million adults 25-54 last week, its largest total audience for the season to-date. Relative to Thanksgiving week, that’s +2% in total viewers, but flat in demo viewers. The year-over-year story is stronger, as the newscast was +9% in total viewers and +6% among adults 25-54.
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.
Below, the Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of Nov. 30:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 9,922,000 | 8,281,000 | 6,395,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,878,000 | 1,618,000 | 1,182,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 11/30/20), Previous Week (w/o 11/23/20) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 12/2/19). Most Current: 2020 -2021 Season (9/21-12/6/19) and 2019-2020 Season (9/23-12/8/19). Averages based on regular telecasts.