A few months after taking the anchor seat at “CBS Evening News,” Tony Dokoupil still lags far behind his rivals, the latest Nielsen figures show.The nightly newscast pulled in about 3.8 million viewers and fewer than 500,000 adults in the key 25-to-54 demographic during the week of April 6 — a sharp drop that left it trailing both “ABC World News Tonight” and “NBC Nightly News” by wide margins, according to recently released ratings.
ABC’s flagship broadcast, meanwhile, remains the clear leader in the nightly news wars, drawing more than 8 million total viewers and topping 1 million in the 25-to-54 demo during the week of April 6 — nearly double CBS’s audience in both categories.
- “World News Tonight” outdelivered “NBC Nightly News” (6.411 million, 943,000 and 658,000, respectively) in Total Viewers (+27%/+1.734 million), Adults 25-54 (+7%/+67,000) and Adults 18-49 (+13%/+86,000).
- For the eighth straight week, “World News Tonight” built on its Total Viewer lead over “NBC Nightly News” year to year (+18% – 1.734 million vs. 1.474 million) by double digits.
- For the seventh week in a row, “World News Tonight” saw gains on the same week last year in all key target demos: Total Viewers (+9%/+644,000 – 8.175 million vs. 7.531 million), Adults 25-54 (+3%/+28,000 – 1.010 million vs. 982,000) and Adults 18-49 (+3%/+22,000 – 744,000 vs. 722,000).
- “World News Tonight” (8.175 million, 1.010 million and 744,000, respectively) more than doubled the performance of “CBS Evening News” (3.804 million, 482,000 and 347,000, respectively) in Total Viewers (+115%/+4.371 million), Adults 25-54 (+110%/+528,000) and Adults 18-49 (+114%/+397,000).
- “World News Tonight” increased its margins over “CBS Evening News” versus the year-ago week in Total Viewers (+17% – 4.371 million vs. 3.721 million), Adults 25-54 (+11% – 528,000 vs. 474,000) and Adults 18-49 (+2% – 397,000 vs. 388,000).