The Lead
Norah O’Donnell is set to exit the anchor chair of CBS Evening News later this month. And despite the show lagging behind competitors ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt for the duration of her tenure, the show saw a slight increase at the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025.
For the week of December 30th, CBS saw a 5% increase in total viewers, up to 4.4 million, according to figures from Nielsen. Coverage of the New Year’s Eve attack in New Orleans, along with the news that former President Jimmy Carter had died, led many news programs during the week.
In the Adults 25-54 demographic, the show anchored by Norah O’Donnell was up 8% compared to the previous week. It garnered 638,000 viewers in that key demo.
For the week, Muir’s newscast led in total viewers with 7 million. Holt’s NBC News program finished with 6 million. However, the audience size in the Adults 25-54 demographic was a much closer race. ABC World News Tonight averaged 886,000 viewers compared to the 842,000 who watched NBC Nightly News.
Norah O’Donnell is slated to leave the anchor chair of CBS Evening News on Friday, January 24th. She will be replaced by a trio of Margaret Brennan, John Dickerson, and Maurice DuBois after the program relocates to New York.
CNN Bounces Back After Record Low Viewership
Both CNN and MSNBC had seen significant drops in viewership after the 2024 presidential election concluded. CNN especially had noticed the dip, with some metrics dropping to record lows in the weeks after Donald Trump was elected. However, the network had a strong bounceback during the final days of December and first few days of January.
The network saw an 87% increase in total primetime audience during the week of December 30th. CNN averaged 519,000 total viewers in primetime for the week. New Year’s Eve coverage anchored by Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen led all of cable television in the primetime window on the year’s final day, as 1.9 million viewers tuned in. That large audience undoubtedly lifted the network to a total day finish of fourth in total cable TV viewers for the week.
In the Adults 25-54 demographic, the uptick was even higher, as viewership grew 186%, with and average of 126,000 viewers from the demo watching primetime coverage on CNN during the week.
Fox News commanded 57% of the total day cable news audience share during the week, with that figure rising to 58% in primetime. Elsewhere in the primetime cable news ratings, CNN held 17%, while MSNBC was close behind with 15%. Newsmax held 8% of the total audience, with NewsNation accounting for 3%.
Cable News Commands 3 of the Top 5 Most-Watched Networks
Fox News finished the week of December 30th as the second most watched network on cable in the total day category behind ESPN, which saw several high-profile college football broadcasts on its network.
An average of 1.3 million viewers tuned into Fox News. CNN was fourth with an average audience of 396,000. MSNBC was close behind in fifth with an average of 390,000.
Joining the cable networks in the top five was Hallmark Channel, which earned a third-place showing with an average of 461,000 total viewers in the total day category.
In primetime, Fox News remained in second place with an average of 1.7 million viewers. CNN dropped to seventh with 519,000, while MSNBC was ninth with 445,000 total viewers.
Newsmax was 26th (172,000) and 28th (234,000) in total day and primetime figures, respectively. NewsNation averaged 50,000 total viewers in the total day ratings and an audience of 77,000, on average, in the primetime ratings.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing bi-weekly industry features and a weekly column. He has previously served as Program Director and Afternoon Co-Host on 93.1 The Fan in Lima, OH, and is the radio play-by-play voice of Northern Michigan University hockey. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
