The chase for the July 2017 evening news ratings crown resulted in a split decision. ABC World News Tonight with David Muir finished No. 1 in total viewers, while NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt earned first place in the key A25-54 demo.
World News Tonight’s July sweeps win in total viewers is particularly notable because it marks the program’s first July sweeps victory over Nightly News since 2007. ABC’s evening newscast also won the previous three sweeps periods in total viewers. Four straight sweeps wins in total viewers is something the program hadn’t accomplished since the 1995-1996 season, when the late-Peter Jennings was anchor.
WNT grew less than +1 percent in total viewers from July 2016, but lost traction with adults 25-54 (-7 percent).
NBC Nightly News saw its decade-long across the board ratings dominance during July sweeps come to an end, but the newscast still remains at the top of the evening news heap in the demo that’s most important to TV news advertisers: Adults 25-54.
With this month’s victory, Nightly News has been the go-to evening news cast for adults 25-54 for 9 consecutive sweeps periods, and 35 of the last 38.
Nightly was -4 percent in total viewers and -15 percent in the demo from July 2016.
The CBS Evening News has endured a difficult couple of months, highlighted by the departure of Scott Pelley from the Evening News anchor’s chair. With Anthony Mason in the seat on an interim basis, CBS was -10 percent in total viewers and -20 percent in the news demo this past month from July 2016.
Numbers for the July 2017 Sweep:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,529,000 | 7,274,000 | 5,680,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,527,000 | 1,609,000 | 1,189,000 |