For the First Time in Nearly 3 Years, ‘Nightly News’ Tops ‘ABC World News Tonight’ In A25-54 Demo in Thursday & Friday Broadcasts
Continues to Improve Competitively Across-the-Board vs. ABC in Week-Over-Week & Year-Over-Year Measurements
PLUS: ‘Nightly News’ is Only Newscast to Increase in Total Viewers & A25-54 vs. Last Week
Week of Feb. 20 Ratings Highlights
- For the first time in nearly three years, Nightly News tops ABC in the key demo for two consecutive broadcasts – Thursday & Friday
- Nightly News improves across-the-board gaps vs. ABC in week-over-week & year-over-year measurements
- Nightly News is the only newscast to increase total & A25-54 viewership in week-over-week measurements, up 12,000 total viewers & 9,000 A25-54 viewers
- Nightly News ranks #2 in total viewers for the week with 7.204 million total viewers, excluding specials, sports & syndication
- Nightly News marks most narrow A25-54 gap vs. ABC since 11/22/21 and its most narrow total viewer gap vs. ABC since 12/19/22
Week of Feb 20: Nightly Stats
- Averages 1.164 million A25-54 viewers, beating CBS by +391,000 (+51%), the largest advantage over the network since 1/16/23
- Nightly tops ABC in the key demo on Thursday & Friday, marking the first back-to-back wins since March 2020
- Nightly is the only newscast to increase A25-54 viewers vs. last week, up +9,000
- In week over week, Nightly News narrows the A25-54 viewership gap vs. ABC by 47%, marking most narrow A25-54 gap vs. ABC since 11/22/21
- Nightly News narrows the key demo gap vs. ABC in year-over-year measurements for the 13th straight week, this time by 61%
- Averages 7.204 million total viewers, topping CBS by +2.149 million (+43%), the largest advantage over the network since December 2022
- Nightly is the only newscast to increase total viewership vs. last week, up +12,000
- In week over week, Nightly News narrows the total viewership gap vs. ABC by 4%, marking most narrow total viewer gap vs. ABC since 12/19/22
- In year over year, Nightly News narrows the total viewership gap vs. ABC by 23%
- Averages 799,000 A18-49 viewers, leading CBS by +284,000 (+55%)
- In week over week, Nightly News narrows A18-49 gap vs. ABC by 36%, closest gap vs. ABC since 11/21/22
- In year over year, Nightly News narrows A18-49 gap vs. ABC by 47%
- Across digital, Nightly News saw 16.7 million video views and 1.6 hours viewed on & off network platforms, including clips and full episodes
- On YouTube, weekday episodes reached 967,000 views and 725,000 viewers
WEEK of FEBRUARY 20-26, 2023
| Program | P25-54 | P18-49 | P2+ |
| Imps | Imps | Imps | |
| NBC NIGHTLY NEWS | 1,164 | 799 | 7,204 |
| CBS EVENING NEWS | 773 | 515 | 5,055 |
| ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT | 1,260 | 869 | 8,298 |
Note: Ratings now reflect the addition of Out of Home (OOH) viewership that began being measured on Aug. 31,2020 across only 44 markets tracked by Nielsen Media Research. NBC Nightly News, World News Tonight and CBS Evening News’ ratings are comprised of telecasts with regular titling and include afternoon and overnight airings on owned stations. Digital ratings sourcing: Adobe Analytics and Partner Portals; YouTube Analytics Portal.
