Nielsen data for the week of Monday, Sep. 6, 2021 is in, and ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the No. 1 evening newscast, averaging 7.77 million total viewers and 1.43 million adults 25-54 from Tuesday through Friday of last week.
World News Tonight was labeled as a special on Monday last week for Labor Day.
While World News Tonight continued to dominate the evening news competition, the newscast shed audience from the previous week (which was shortened on Friday due to the imminent Labor Day weekend). WNT fell in average total viewers (-9%), and in the key A25-54 demo (-14%). Compared to the same week in 2020, the newscast shed -13% of its average total audience, and a fifth of its A25-54 demo audience (-20%).
So, despite it being a mediocre ratings week by World News Tonight standards, season to date, ABC is still No. 1 in the evenings across the board, and has the most-watched evening newscast for the 5th consecutive season, based on most current Nielsen data.
Second-place NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt averaged 6.47 million total viewers (No. 5 on all of U.S. TV) and 1.18 million adults 25-54 this past week. Nightly News managed to beat World News Tonight in the A25-54 demo on Friday, Sept. 10, (+13,000) when all three evening news anchors led their respective programs from Ground Zero.
That said, Nightly News lost -13% in adults 25-54 and -9% in average total viewers from the prior week (Aug. 30). It was also down by -19% in A25-54 viewers, and -11% in average total viewers from the same week in 2020.
Nightly News ratings are based on a three-day average (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday), retitling on Thursday due to the NFL season opener airing live across the U.S in primetime.
Additionally, on YouTube, full weekday episodes of Nightly News earned an average of 55,000 views and 455,000 viewers watching for more than 12 minutes on average. That’s according to data from Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals, and the YouTube Analytics Portal.
CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged 4.64 million total viewers this past week, which is -10% from what it averaged the previous week. The broadcast also averaged 849,000 adults 25-54 this past week, which is -9% from the previous week. The newscast lost -10% in average total viewers and -8% in A25-54 from the year ago week.
CBS Evening News was the most-watched show on CBS Tuesday through Thursday of last week, and No. 1 in the demo on Tuesday and Friday. The newscast’s ratings are based on just four days (Tuesday-Friday).
Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of Sept. 6:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,765,000 | 6,468,000 | 4,639,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,430,000 | 1,182,000 | 849,000 |