Depending on the point of comparison, Tony Dokoupil’s first three months as anchor of the channel CBS Evening News Resulted in improved or decreased ratings. But the overall standings of the network news race remained unchanged.
Dokoupil and CBS are certainly under the most scrutiny, as he was tapped by CBS News editor-in-chief Barry Weiss to lead the evening newscast as its first senior hire, with the goal of bringing… Evening news Closer to its competitors. In the first quarter through March 20 (which includes the final week of Dokoupil’s predecessors as anchor, John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois), CBS Evening News It averaged 4.24 million viewers and 532,000 people in the key news demographic of adults ages 25-54, based on same-day Nielsen ratings.
This is an improvement over the fourth quarter of 2025, when the newscast averaged 4.03 million viewers and 502,000 adults ages 25 to 54. However, that number was down compared to the first quarter of last year (4.59 million viewers, 657,000 adults ages 18-49).
ABC World news tonight It leads, as usual, with 8.61 million viewers and 1.07 million in the 25-54 demographic, compared to the previous three months (7.86 million viewers, 974,000 adults 25-54). The David Muir-led newscast also increased total viewers from Q1 2025 (8.13 million) but declined slightly in the 25-54 demo (vs. 1.16 million).
the NBC Nightly News with Tom Lamas (6.93 million viewers, 1.04 million adults ages 25-54) Overall improvements posted with a boost from the Winter Olympics. It grew from 6.22 million viewers and 848,000 adults 25-54 in the fourth quarter and 6.6 million/983,000 in the same quarter last year.
There are two caveats here: Nielsen’s first quarter officially ends on Sunday, so the final averages for the three newscasts may change slightly with the addition of this week’s ratings (although the ending order will not change). In addition, THR All non-holiday nightly newscasts are averaged for the three networks, including those renamed for Nielsen tracking purposes.
Here’s how the network’s evening newscasts rank for the 2025-26 season so far.
