‘Nightly’ has strong week in ratings as ‘Evening News’ sags in key demo

“NBC Nightly News” with Tom Llamas ranked first in the adults 25-54 demographic for the week of Jan. 5, overtaking ABC’s “World News Tonight” amid heightened news interest following multiple breaking news stories.

According to Nielsen data, the program averaged 992,000 viewers in the key demo, narrowly beating ABC’s 989,000 and outperforming CBS by 459,000.

As NCS first reported, the Tuesday broadcast delivered NBC’s largest single-day win over ABC in the A25-54 category in four years. NBC also recorded its first fully rated weekly win over ABC since Llamas assumed the anchor role in June. 

Total viewership for “Nightly” reached 6.725 million, marking a 46-week high and surpassing “CBS Evening News” by 2.559 million. The show also averaged 707,000 viewers in the adults 18-49 demographic, an increase of 284,000 over CBS.

NBC’s gains were highlighted by narrowed year-over-year demo gaps versus ABC. The A25-54 gap improved by 47% compared to the same point last season, while the A18-49 gap improved by 34%. NBC also reported a 15% year-over-year reduction in the total viewer gap with ABC. 

Meanwhile, the “CBS Evening News” faced challenges.

Anchor Tony Dokoupil’s primetime debut on Jan. 5 drew over 4.4 million viewers, but audience numbers declined steadily throughout the week. By Thursday, total viewership had fallen to 3.9 million, down 11.4% from Monday. Overall, CBS’s ratings in the key demo are down 23% year over year, averaging 533,000 versus 690,000. CBS, however, notes this surpasses the prior season-to-date averages.

Nielsen data for the week:

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• NBC: 992,000 (A25-54), 707,000 (A18-49), 6.725 million (total viewers)
• CBS: 533,000 (A25-54), 423,000 (A18-49), 4.166 million (total viewers)
• ABC: 989,000 (A25-54), 748,000 (A18-49), 8.078 million (total viewers)

Data from Nielsen Big Data + Panel, Jan. 5-11, based on regularly-titled telecasts only.