The latest news ratings are in, and it was a positive week for CBS, with CBS Mornings being the only morning show to gain in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo, and CBS Evening News being the only evening newscast to gain in total viewers.
According to AdWeek, citing live-plus-same-day data from Nielsen, CBS Mornings averaged 1.693 million total viewers and 309,000 viewers in the key demo for the week of August 18. This was up 1% in total viewers and 9% in the demo compared to the week before.
Despite the gains, however, CBS Mornings still trailed NBC’s Today and ABC’s Good Morning America in both total viewers and key demo.
Today was No. 1 in the demo and No. 2 in total viewers with 517,000 and 2.382 million viewers, respectively. This was down -4% in total viewers and -5% in the demo compared to the previous week, making it the only morning show to drop in both categories.
GMA, meanwhile, finished No. 1 in total viewers with an averaged of 2.565 million, and No. 2 in the demo with 446,000 viewers. This was up 3% in total viewers but flat in the demo.
It was a similar story across the evening broadcasts, with ABC’s World News Tonight holding onto the top spot with 6.916 million total viewers and 838,000 demo viewers for the week of August 18. This was despite the absence of regular host David Muir; Mary Bruce and Rachel Scott hosted in his place. However, it dropped -1% in total viewers and -10% in the demo compared to the week prior.
NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas held second place with an average of 5.665 million and 792,000 demo viewers. While this represented a 1% drop in total viewers compared to last week, the show grew by 2% in the key demo. It should also be noted that the Wednesday (August 20) broadcast finished ahead of World News Tonight in the demo, the third time this has happened since Llamas took over from Lester Holt.
Llamas’ Nightly News was also the only newscast to show year-over-year growth, with gains of 8% in total viewers and 1% in the key demo.
CBS Evening News remained in third place but was the only broadcast to show gains compared to the week prior. The show averaged 3.775 million total viewers and 478,000 demo viewers, a rise of 1% in total viewers and a drop of 8% in the demo.
As noted by AdWeek, the weekly averages of CBS News and NBC News’ newscasts for the week of August 18 are based on four days (Monday to Thursday). On Friday, due to the NFL preseason games, CBS Evening News was retitled to CBS Evening Nws and NBC Nightly News was retitled to NBC Nitely News; both broadcasts were excluded from the averages.