World News Tonight remains No. 1; All 3 newscasts lose adults 25-54
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The three main evening newscasts continue to attract huge audiences, but they are losing adults aged 25-54.
ABC World News tonight with David Muir was the most-watched show on U.S. television (non-syndication) last week of April 18, averaging 8.16 million viewers and 1.38 million adults 25-54, according to data in direct and same day from Nielsen.
With its performance last week, ABC’s evening news has now beaten rivals NBC and CBS 177 of the last 178 weeks in average viewership and 106 of the last 108 weeks in adults 25-54.
World News Tonight lost -1% in total viewers compared to the week of April 11, but gained +1% compared to the same week in 2021 (April 19). Lost adults aged 25-54 from the previous week (-7%) and the week a year ago (-12%).
On Friday, April 22, World News Tonight was rebranded as “WNT-ABC” due to Game 4 of the NBA Playoffs between Milwaukee and Chicago. Renowned broadcast is excluded from the weekly and seasonal averages. Accordingly, WNT’s weekly averages are based on four days (Monday through Thursday), while NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News’ ratings are based on all five days.
Speaking of NBC Nightly News, the Lester Holt -The directed newscast averaged 6.675 million total viewers on NBC last week. This is -2% compared to the previous week, but +2% compared to the comparable week in 2021. The evening news also averaged 1.10 million adults aged 25 to 54 last week , or -5% compared to the previous week, and -11% from the week a year ago.
On YouTube, full episodes of NBC Nightly News averaged 828,000 video views and 645,000 video viewers last week. This is according to Adobe Analytics and partner portals; YouTube analytics portal.
The CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged more than 4.92 million total viewers and 791,000 adults ages 25-54 for the week of April 18. This represents +4% of the total number of viewers, but -3% among adults aged 25-54 compared to the previous week. The year-over-year ratings trend was worse, with Evening News losing less than -1% in total viewers and -5% in its A25-54 audience compared to the week of a year ago (April 19, 2021).
Nielsen live plus same-day averages for the week of April 18, 2022:
| ABC | NBC | SCS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total number of viewers: | 8,160,000 | 6,675,000 | 4,924,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,378,000 | 1,104,000 | 791,000 |
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54, Live + SD Current Week (w/o 4/18/22), Previous Week (w/o 4/11/22) and Year-Ago Week (w /o 4/19/21). The most recent: season 2021-2022 (20/09/21 – 24/04/22) and season 2020-2021 (21/09/20 – 25/04/21). Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. As of 8/31/20, national ratings also include out-of-home viewing (OOH). Averages based on regular telecasts.
