NBC, ABC & CBS Evening News Ratings Show Rivals Neck and Neck

NBC Nightly News With Tom Llamas won a key demographic in the latest broadcast evening news ratings — but not by much. In the Adults 25–54 demo averages for the week of August 31, Tom Llamas’ NBC newscast only beat ABC World News Tonight With David Muir by only 1,000 viewers.

However, ABC World News Tonight did lead in total viewers that week, with a tally of 8.508 million — an 18-percent gain over its total viewership during the same time last year but a 3 percent drop from last week — according to Nielsen ratings data cited by TVNewser. David Muir’s ABC show also lured an average of 1.102 million viewers in the Adults 25-54 demo, up 23 percent over last year but down 10 percent from last week.

NBC/YouTube

NBC Nightly News edged out ABC World News Tonight in the demo, averaging 1.103 million viewers, up 3 percent week over week and 35 percent year over year. But the program lost to its ABC competition in total viewers, averaging 6.988 million, down 1 percent week over week but up 24 percent year over year.

CBS Evening News With Tony Dokoupil once again came in third in total and demo viewers, but at least it was the only evening news program of the three to post week-over-week and year-over-year gains in both metrics, TVNewser notes. Tony Dokoupil’s newscast at CBS averaged 4.037 million total viewers, up 3 percent over last week and up 9 percent over last year, and 544,000 demo viewers, up 2 percent over last week and up 6 percent over last year.

Important to note is that the Nielsen averages are based on three days (Monday–Wednesday) for ABC World News Tonight, two days (Monday and Tuesday) for NBC Nightly News, and four days (Monday–Thursday) for CBS Evening News.

ABC World News Tonight With David Muir, Weeknights, 6:30/5:30c, ABC

NBC Nightly News With Tom Llamas, Weeknights, 6:30/5:30c, NBC

CBS Evening News With Tony Dokoupil, Weeknights, 6:30/5:30c, CBS