Week of Nov. 3 Evening News Ratings: Disney and YouTube TV Dispute Affects Ratings

The current carriage dispute between Disney and YouTube TV, which has led to the unavailability of ABC among YouTube’s pay-TV subscribers, has worked in favor of NBC Nightly News, which finished in first place in the advertiser-coveted demo of Adults 25-54 for the week of November 3.

As a result of the ongoing dispute, which has now stretched to two weeks, ABC’s national availability has been limited due to the loss of 10 million pay-TV homes from YouTube TV.

Despite that, when including the retitled broadcasts, ABC News’ WNT emerged as the most-watched broadcast in total viewers during the first week of November, which included the off-year Election Day.

Meanwhile, NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News had a good week, posting week-to-week improvements in both measured categories.

Note: The weekly average of ABC World News Tonight is based on the retitled broadcasts that aired from Tuesday (11/04/2025) through Friday (11/07/25). Monday’s (11/03/2025) broadcast was not included due to the NFL.

According to national live+same-day big data plus program ratings from Nielsen, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir averaged 7.206 million total viewers and 883,000 Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of November 3. The evening newscast declined by -7% in total viewers and the A25-54 demo compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance for the same week in 2024 (the week beginning November 4), WNT was down by -2% in total viewers and -18% in the demo.

In second place in total viewers and leading the pack for the week in the demo was NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas, averaging 6.667 million and 929,000 viewers, respectively. The broadcast was up by +8% in total viewers and +10% in the A25-54 demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News was up 10% in total viewers but down -4% in the demo. 

CBS Evening News had 4.260 million total viewers and 564,000 viewers in the demo for the week of November 3. The broadcast was up by +5% in total viewers and +15% in the demo compared to the previous week. Its year-ago week numbers showed the newscast declining by -6% in total viewers and -28% in the demo.