The Lead
ABC World News Tonight has long been on top of the broadcast nightly news ratings in total viewers, while NBC Nightly News has rested firmly in second place. But the key demographic totals have featured a much tighter race. That race got even closer during the final week of Lester Holt leading the NBC News show.
During the week of May 26th, World News Tonight with David Muir continued to hold the lead in the overall viewership category, with 7 million viewers compared to the 5.7 million seen with NBC News.
In the Adults 25-54 demographic, however, the race was incredibly close. ABC News remained on top, with 884,000 viewers from the sector, while NBC Nightly News saw 831,000 viewers. That difference of 53,000 viewers is the smallest it has been in 2025.
CBS Evening News continued its slide, falling to the lowest figures on 2025, finishing with 3.6 million viewers for the week on average, with 490,000 coming from the key demographic.
For the week that encompassed Memorial Day, each of the three major network newscasts was down compared to the previous week. ABC World News Tonight saw a 2% decrease in viewership. CBS Evening News saw the largest decrease in audience, as its total viewership dropped by more than 8%. NBC Nightly News, buoyed by it being the final week of Lester Holt anchoring the broadcast, saw a decline of less than .5%.
CNN Slide Continues
During the week of May 12th, CNN averaged 405,000 total viewers in the primetime window. That represented — at the time — a new low for 2025, which was set in the week before the inauguration of Trump at 448,000.
The slide has only continued since that week, with May continuing to see a slump below the 400,000 total viewers category.
The week of May 19th slipped below 405,000 total viewers in primetime, ending the week with an average of 386,000 total viewers.
While the network continues to lag well behind other networks like Fox News and MSNBC, it continued to top MSNBC in the key Adults 25-54 demographic.
However, that ended during the week of May 26th. MSNBC surpassed CNN in the key demographic, as it finished with 65,000 compared to 61,000 for CNN. That week also saw the decline in total viewership continue as CNN finished the week with an average audience of 374,000 in primetime. That figure represented an almost 8% decline to the previous low set during the week of May 12th.
Despite the slide for CNN, it was not alone in the primetime window featuring decreased audiences. The week of May 26th, which included the Memorial Day holiday, saw Fox News and MSNBC with slumping viewership figures.
During the week, Fox News saw its audience decrease by 5.5% compared to the previous week, as it finished with 2.3 million total viewers in the daypart. MSNBC saw a downturn of 9% in the total audience figure between the week of May 19th and May 26th. It finished the final week of May with 718,000 total viewers in primetime.
Newsmax finished the week with an average audience of 211,000 total viewers in primetime. Meanwhile, NewsNation averaged 84,000 total viewers in the window.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
