Week of March 16 Evening News Ratings: Broadcasts Enter Spring With No Losses

The evening newscasts closed out winter and entered spring with some good news, as all three recorded no viewership losses in total viewers or the Adults 25-54 demo for the week of March 16.

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil each experienced week-to-week gains in both measured categories. 

WNT is currently on a hot streak with its largest overall viewer lead over NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas dating back to April 13, 2020. The Muir-led news program widened its lead over Nightly News by double-digit percentage points in total viewers (+17%) and the Adults 25-54 demo (+43%). However, Llamas wasn’t sitting behind the NBC desk from Monday through Wednesday.

Meanwhile, CBS News’ broadcast had a healthy bounceback, finishing with more than four million total viewers for the just-concluded week. However, it continued to fall further behind WNT, extending the viewership distance by triple-digit percentages for the sixth straight week in total viewers (-112%) and the demo (-107%).

Note: The weekly averages of CBS Evening News are based on three days (Monday-Wednesday). Thursday’s (03/19/26) and Friday’s (03/20/26) broadcasts were retitled to CBS Evening Nws. These broadcasts are 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 8.821 million total viewers and 1.102 million Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of March 16. The evening newscast was up by +4% among total viewers and +7% among A25-54 viewers compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance during the same week in 2025* (the week beginning March 17), WNT was up +17% in total viewers and +6% in the demo.

NBC Nightly News was the No. 2 newscast in total viewers and the demo, averaging 6.518 million and 978,000 viewers, respectively. Compared to the previous week, Nightly News was flat in total viewers and grew by +3% in the demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News was up by +7% in total viewers and +14% in the demo.

CBS Evening News finished the week of March 16 with 4.166 million total viewers and 533,000 viewers in the demo. CBS News’ newscast had gains of +8% in total viewers and +14% in the demo compared to the previous week. Its year-ago week numbers showed the newscast growing by +3% in total viewers but tumbling by -12% 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.

March 16, 2026

Source: Nielsen, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54, and Adults 18-49 National Live + Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings. Current Week (w/o 3/16/26), Previous Week (w/o 3/9/26), and Year-Ago Week (w/o 3/17/25). Season to date: Most Current Data Stream: 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 3/22/26) and 2024-2025 Season (9/23/24 – 3/23/25).

This story has been updated to note that Tom Llamas wasn’t sitting behind the NBC desk from Monday through Wednesday.