The Lead
There’s a narrative that news is dying. Tell that to ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, which has served as the most-watched program in all of television for 10 consecutive weeks.
The week of July 14th marked another ratings victory for the nightly newscast, which continues to best competitors NBC Nightly News and CBS Evening News. The show averaged 7.3 million viewers for the week, which is the slightest increase compared to the previous week.
During the 10-week run as the top-rated program, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir has featured at least 7 million total viewers on average each week.
Additionally, the show earned more than 1 million viewers from the Adults 25-54 demographic, finishing with 1.037 million viewers from that sector during the week of July 14th. It has only reached that 1 million milestone four times during the 10-week stretch.
In fact, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir actually averaged more viewers than the MLB All-Star Game, which was broadcast on FOX. It marks the second time ever that the newscast saw more viewers than the Midsummer Classic, dating back to when the Nielsen electronic database was created in 1991.
Both NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas and CBS Evening News saw slight dips in their week-over-week ratings. The NBC News show saw a decline of less than 1%, down from 5.616 million viewers to 5.583 million.
CBS Evening News, meanwhile, dropped from 3.874 million to 3.775 million, a decline of 2.6%.
NBC News averaged 838,000 viewers from the key demographic — eclipsing the David Muir-led program on Tuesday night in the category — while CBS News averaged just under 500,000 from the Adults 25-54 sector during the week.
Fox News Most-Watched TV Channel Since Memorial Day
Fox News has been on a ratings tear lately, and that continued during the week of July 14th.
In primetime, Fox News averaged 2.4 million, making it the most-watched cable or broadcast network for the week. It marks an ongoing theme for the network, which has topped broadcast counterparts like ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC during the month of July. The network averaged 2.8 million viewers during weekday primetime during the week of July 14th.
Going back to Memorial Day, Fox News is the highest-rated network, averaging just under 3 million total viewers in that window.
The Five led the network as its highest-rated program, with 3.5 million viewers on average. Meanwhile, Special Report with Bret Baier saw 2.6 million viewers throughout the week, with Hannity averaging 2.5 million viewers, and The Ingraham Angle finished with 2.4 million on average.
Gutfeld! Extends Lead Over Late-Night Counterparts
With the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert dominating the news cycle at times this week, a magnifying glass has been placed on the ratings from the genre.
Fox News’ Gutfeld! averaged 2.8 million viewers during the week of July 14th. Colbert’s program averaged 2 million viewers.
Competitors like Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon were well behind the other two programs, with Kimmel’s show on ABC averaging just over 1 million viewers, while Fallon’s program finished with 991,000 total viewers.
Additionally, Late Night with Seth Meyers, which airs after The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on NBC, averaged 706,000 total viewers for the week.
It is worth mentioning that Gutfeld! begins more than 90 minutes earlier than the broadcast network late-night shows. The Greg Gutfeld-led show begins at 10 PM ET, while the network programs begin at 11:35 PM ET, except for the Seth Meyers show, which begins at 12:35 AM ET.
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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.
