Audiences levels for the evening newscasts fell back to Earth during the week of Oct. 3 after what had been a highly-rated week driven by Hurricane Ian coverage.
ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News all lost viewers from the previous week and the year-ago week.
According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data for the week of Oct. 3, World News Tonight with David Muir averaged 7.41 million total viewers, and 1.20 million adults 25-54. While those numbers are low by World News Tonight standards, the newscast still defeated its competition from NBC and CBS for the 201st of the past 202 weeks in average total viewers—and 130 of the last 132 weeks among adults 25-54.
The ABC evening newscast, which continues to rank as America’s second-most-watched non-sports program, shed -13% in total viewers and -18% in A25-54 viewers from the prior week (Sept. 26). Relative to the comparable week in 2021 (beginning Oct. 4). WNT is down -5% in total viewers and -13% among adults 25-54
On Monday, Sept. 26, World News Tonight was retitled to “WNT-ABC” due to Monday Night Football (which airs on both ESPN and ABC), and the retitled telecast is excluded from the weekly averages. As a result, World News Tonight’s weekly ratings averages are based on four days (Tuesday-Friday), whereas CBS’ and NBC’s ratings are based on all five days.
Speaking of NBC’s evening newscast, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt earned a rare first place on Friday among Adults 25-54, beating ABC by roughly +14,000 viewers from the measurement. The last time NBC’s evening newscast beat its ABC competition in the ad-friendly demo on any day of the week was all the way back in January.
Nightly News averaged 6.53 million total viewers on linear this past week, which is -8% from the prior week and only -1% from the year-ago week. Nightly also averaged 1.21 million adults 25-54 on linear, which represents its tightest gap with ABC in roughly 10 months, but also happens to be -10% from the previous week and -11% from the year-ago week.
According to data from Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals—and the YouTube Analytics Portal, full weekday episodes of NBC Nightly News earned an average of 689,000 views and 672,000 viewers last week.
Last but never least, CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged more than 4.63 million total viewers this past week, which -7% from the previous week and -4% from the year-ago week. The newscast also averaged 740,000 adults 25-54, which is -9% from the previous week and -13% from the year-ago week.
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of Oct. 3, 2022:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,407,000 | 6,529,000 | 4,628,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,201,000 | 1,072,000 | 740,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54. Live + SD Current Week (w/o 10/2/22), Previous Week (w/o 9/26/22) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 10/4/21). Most Current Data Stream: Season 2022-2023 (9/19 – 10/9/22), Season 2021-2023 (9/20 – 10/10/22). 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.