Week of April 21 Evening News Ratings: World News Tonight Leads in Coverage of Pope Francis’ Passing

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the only only evening newscast to record positive movement in total viewers and the advertiser-coveted Adults 25-54 demo for the week of April 21.

During a week that saw extensive coverage of Pope Francis‘ passing, WNT ranked as the most-watched weekday program in all of broadcast and cable news in both measured categories.

NBC Nightly News was the only newscast to lose viewers in total viewers and the A25-54 demo compared to the previous week, while CBS Evening News saw an uptick in total viewers.

Note: The weekly averages of ABC World News are based on three days (Monday-Wednesday). Thursday’s (04/24/25) and Friday’s (04/25/25) broadcasts were retitled to WNT-ABC. These broadcasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages.

According to live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, WNT averaged 7.432 million total viewers and 1.047 A25-54 viewers. The newscast rose by +4% in the former category and +9% in the latter compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance to the same week in 2024 (the week beginning April 22), WNT dipped in total viewers by -1%, but ticked upwards +1% in the demo.

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt finished in the No. 2 position in both total viewers and the demo, averaging 5.710 million total viewers and 769,000 demo viewers. Week-to-week, Nightly News was down in a respective -3% and -6% in those measured categories. Year-to-year, the newscast was down -4% in total viewers and -1% in the demo. 

CBS Evening News had 3.832 million total viewers and 531,000 A25-54 viewers for a gain of +3% in the former category, but a dip of -2% in the latter. Compared to 2024, the newscast was down -13% in total viewers and -12% in the demo.