All three evening shows suffered week-to-week ratings drops in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo for the week of March 9. These declines come despite news that the American economy is still being affected by unrest in the Middle East.
Additionally, the switch to Daylight Saving Time could have affected viewership patterns, as the sun sets later.
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remained the most-watched newscast in the country in both measured categories. Meanwhile, CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil fell below 4 million total viewers for the week.
The previous rendition of CBS News’ evening broadcast, which John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois co-hosted, found itself in similar territory, which may have led to the format and anchor changes once Bari Weiss took over the network.
Despite several changes over the last few months, CBS Evening News remains in third place, trailing its competitors in the timeslot. This week’s numbers show the evening telecast off by 4.633 million total viewers from WNT. The Muir-led newscast now has its largest total viewer season lead over CBS Evening News in at least 34 years.
Note: The weekly averages of CBS Evening News are based on four days (Monday-Thursday). Friday’s (03/13/26) broadcast was retitled to CBS Evening Nws. This broadcast is excluded from the weekly and season averages.
According to national live+same-day big data plus program ratings from Nielsen, ABC World News Tonight averaged 8.478 million total viewers and 1.033 million Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of March 9. The evening newscast was down by -5% among total viewers and -6% among A25-54 viewers compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance during the same week in 2025* (the week beginning March 10), WNT was up +13% in total viewers and +1% in the demo.
NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas finished second in total viewers and the demo, averaging 6.514 million and 946,000 viewers, respectively. Compared to the previous week, Nightly News declined by -6% in total viewers and -10% in the demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News grew by +7% in total viewers and +6% in the demo.
CBS Evening News had 3.845 million total viewers and 468,000 viewers in the demo for the week of March 9. CBS News’ newscast was down -7% in total viewers and -8% in the demo compared to the previous week. Its year-ago week numbers showed the newscast falling by -5% in total viewers and -21% in the demo—the only broadcast with declines within this yearly comparison.
*Please note that year-over-year comparisons are based on Nielsen Big Data+Panel (2025) vs. Panel (2025) measurements.
