ABC World News Tonight with David Muir started the 2024-2025 broadcast season in its usual first place position in both total viewers and the advertiser-coveted demo of Adults 25-54. It’s the ninth consecutive year that WNT opened the season as the most-watched evening newscast.

In addition, the program extended its winning streak in total viewers to 302 out of 305 weeks and 230 out of the last 235 weeks in the demo.

In a positive sign, all three evening newscasts saw total viewer gains for the week of September 23. CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell was the only evening news broadcast to register a week-to-week drop-off in the demo. 

Note: The weekly averages of ABC World News Tonight are based on three days (Tuesday – Thursday). Monday’s (09/23/24) broadcast was retitled to WNT-ABC due to Monday Night Football, and Friday’s (09/05/24) broadcast was also retitled to WNT-ABC. These broadcasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages.

WNT averaged 7.455 million total viewers and 1.039 million demo viewers for gains of +4% in the former category and +9% in the latter compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance alongside the same week in 2023 (the week beginning September 25), WNT was flat in total viewers and down -2% in the demo.

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt was the No. 2 newscast in total viewers and the demo, averaging 5.996 million and 929,000 viewers, respectively. Week-to-week, Nightly News was up +7% in total viewers and double digits in the demo by +12%. Looking at its performance vs. the same week a year ago, the newscast was down a respective -3% and -4% in both measured categories.

CBS Evening News saw 4.640 million total viewers and 680,000 viewers in the demo for a gain of +4% in the former category, but a dip of -1% in the latter compared to the previous week. The newscast did receive some positive year-to-year returns as the only evening broadcast to register gains rising by +4% in total viewers and +9% in the demo.

Nielsen live-plus-same-day averages for the week of September 23, 2024: