The Lead
Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker sat down for an extended interview with President Donald Trump to commemorate the administration surpassing its first 100 days. It led to a ratings victory for the NBC News show.
During the week of Sunday, May 4th, NBC News swept both the total viewers and coveted Adults 25-54 demographic for the first time in 2025 in the Sunday political affairs sector.
In total, 2.8 million viewers watched as Welker interviewed Donald Trump about a variety of topics. Included in that total figure were 551,000 viewers from the key demographic.
The broadcast marked the highest audience for Meet the Press in 2025, eclipsing the previous high of 2.7 million viewers the week of Sunday, March 2nd.
While it was the highest figure for Kristen Welker and Meet the Press, its counterparts each dropped to the lowest totals of 2025.
CBS News’ Face the Nation — helmed by Margaret Brennan — saw an average audience of 2.5 million viewers, with 419,000 coming from the key demo. This Week with George Stephanopoulos was down to 2.3 million viewers, with 403,000 in the coveted demographic. Fox News Sunday — anchored by Shannon Bream — featured 945,000 total viewers. That program had an average audience of 202,000 from the key demo.
CNN Sees Primetime April Slide
CNN has been in the midst of a ratings struggle for quite a while. That was evidenced by its performance throughout the month of April, with the network seeing its ratings slide even further.
During March, CNN averaged 591,000 viewers in primetime. That figure was helped by the network’s coverage of the speech from President Donald Trump to a joint session of Congress, which could be viewed as a quasi-State of the Union address.
In April, however, the network dropped to an average of 506,000 total viewers for the month.
To begin the month, CNN saw an average of 572,000 and 584,000 total viewers in the first two weeks of April. Those numbers declined for the remainder of the month, though, dropping to 470,000 the week of April 14th, 449,000 during the week of April 21st, and 458,000 the week of April 28th.
The network’s decline wasn’t limited to the total viewership sector. In the key Adults 25-54 demographic, CNN began the month of April with an average of 114,000 viewers in the demo. That fell to 113,000 the following week, 84,000 the week of April 14th, 85,000 the week of April 21st, and 81,000 for the week of April 28th.
CBS Evening News Continues Downturn
The ratings for the CBS Evening News have continued to decline since the departure of anchor Norah O’Donnell.
O’Donnell anchored her final show on Thursday, January 24th. Beginning on Monday, January 27th, the show began being anchored by John Dickerson, Maurice DuBois, with appearances by Margaret Brennan. It also featured a revamped presentation that included a more news magazine-like approach with smaller story counts and a focus on long-form storytelling and analysis.
In the weeks preceding O’Donnell’s exit, the CBS Evening News averaged 5.1 million viewers. Since O’Donnell left the show, the program has continually slid.
In February, the show averaged 4.5 million viewers. The following month, it dropped to 4.1 million.
During April, the program fell even more. The nightly newscast finished the month with an average total audience of 3.8 million viewers. The network failed to reach an average of 4 million viewers in any week throughout the month, after continually finishing with between an average of 4.3 and 5.2 million viewers before the week following the address by President Donald Trump to a joint session of Congress.
That drop isn’t contained to the total viewership category, either. In the weeks leading up to O’Donnell’s departure, the nightly newscast averaged 726,000 viewers in the Adults 25-54 demographic. During the month, it averaged 521,000 viewers from the key demographic. Last week, CBS Evening News finished with 482,000 viewers in the key demo, setting a new low for 2025.
During April, ABC World News Tonight continued to lead the nightly newscast ratings with an average of 7.3 million viewers. NBC Nightly News — which is preparing to see Lester Holt depart the anchor chair later this month — averaged just under 6 million viewers throughout the month.
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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.
