The first week of March gave mixed results for the three evening newscasts. CBS Evening News was the only newscast to achieve weekly growth across viewers, but NBC Nightly News with Leicester Holt enjoyed a positive move with the Adults 25-54 demo.
As for World News Tonight with David Muir, Flagship ABC News Newscast remained number one in both measured categories, but missed weekly growth. It will be interesting to see whether the emergence of daylight saving time will affect any of the three broadcasts, especially if it affects CBS Evening News.
Note: The weekly average for ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News is based on four days (Monday, Wednesday to Friday), while the average for CBS News is based on three days (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday). All three programs were judged on Tuesday (03/04/2025), and CBS News’ Friday (03/07/24) broadcast was cited by CBS Evening NWS. These broadcasts are excluded from weekly and seasonal averages.
ABC World News Tonight averaged 7.891 million viewers and 1.064 A25-54 viewers for flat results in the previous category and -1% DIP compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance alongside the same week of 2024 (week of March 4th), WNT rose 1% in viewer total, but fell -3% in demos.
NBC Nightly News finished second with a total audience and an A25-54 crowd. They average an average of 6393 million viewers and 952,000 viewers, respectively. Weekly nighttime news was flat in total viewers, up 1% in demos. Every year, newscasts remained flat in previous categories, checking upwards in the latter by +4%.
CBS Evening News demonstrated that DIP was weekly +2% in the former category and -3% in the latter, with 4378 million viewers and 623,000 viewers in the demo. Compared to 2024, the number of newscasts fell by -3% for both the overall audience and the demo.
Source: Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54, and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (W/O 3/3/25), last week (W/O 2/24/25) and annual week (W/O 3/4/24). Current data streams: 2024-2025 season (9/23/24 – 3/9/25) and 2023-2024 season (9/25/23 – 3/10/24). Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional broadcasts in select markets. Starting August 31/20, the national reviews include watching your home (OOH). Average based on regular television broadcasts.
