ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the most-watched evening newscast for the July 2018 sweeps period, giving the program its 8th consecutive sweeps win in the category. World News Tonight officially all 4 sweeps periods of broadcast TV season for the 2nd year in a row – 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.
WNT posted its largest July sweep victory over NBC in 23 years, since July 1995 (+525,000 viewers). It also posted audience growth vs. July 2017 sweeps, +4 percent in total viewers, and +1 percent among adults 25-54, according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data.
NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt was No. 1 in the A25-54 demo, which matters most to advertisers of TV news, winning its 13th straight sweep in the category.
The broadcast averaged 1.56 million A25-54 viewers, ahead of ABC World News Tonight by only +10,000 (+1 percent) and ahead of CBS Evening News by +461,000 viewers (+30 percent). The 1.56 million is -3 percent vs. July 2017.
Nightly News also averaged 7.3 million total viewers for July 2018 sweep. That’s ahead of CBS Evening News by +1.8 million total viewers (+32 percent), and flat versus the July 2017 sweep period.
Despite remaining in third, CBS Evening News with Jeff Glor had a notable month. Glor’s exclusive network interviews with President Trump aired across multiple Evening News broadcasts last week. The interviews lifted Evening News to its best week in the A25-54 demo since the week of May 28, but the evening newscast was still -3 percent in total viewers, and -8 percent in the demo vs. July 2017 sweeps.
Numbers for the July, 2018 Sweep:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,798,000 | 7,273,000 | 5,503,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,547,000 | 1,557,000 | 1,096,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54. Sweeps based on Live+7/Most Current: July 2018 Sweep (6/28-7/25/18), July 2017 Sweep (6/29-7/26/17) NOTE: Due to the digital transition, the 2009 February Sweep was 3/5-4/1/09. Averages based on regular telecasts.