CBS Evening News Ratings Show Big Swing Since Norah O’Donnell Exit

Martin Holmes June 25, 2025, 9:35 am

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Maurice Dubois and John Dickerson — CBS Evening News YouTube

CBS Evening News continues to face challenges following Norah O’Donnell‘s departure earlier this year, with ratings down compared to the same period last year.

As reported by AdWeek, citing Nielsen live-plus-same-day data ratings for the week of June 16, CBS Evening News, hosted by John Dickerson and Maurice Dubois, had 3.981 million total viewers and 526,000 viewers in the Adults 25-54 demo. This was not only down -4% in total viewers and demo to the week prior but also down -8% in total viewers and -15% in demo year-over-year.

O’Donnell, who hosted the show between 2019 and 2025, anchored her final episode on January 23. Dickerson and Dubois then took over a new-look version of the program, which adopted a more 60 Minutes-style magazine format. Rather than rattling through the headlines, the new version of Evening News provides longer segments on specific topics.

The new Evening News format came from CBS News CEO and president Wendy McMahon. The changes came after O’Donnell’s show trailed in third place to NBC and ABC for the past five years.

In comparison, NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas attracted 5.678 million total viewers and 820,000 in the key demo for the week of June 16. This was flat in total viewers compared to the previous week but down -3% in the demo. However, while the program was down -1% in total viewers compared to last year, it was up +11% in the demo.

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ABC World News Tonight with David Muir was the only newscast to post gains in both total viewers and demo. However, it should be noted ABC News’ weekly average was only based on Tuesday (June 17) and Wednesday (June 18). Monday (June 16) and Friday’s (June 20) broadcasts were retitled to WNT-ABC due to the NBA finals, and Thursday’s (June 19) broadcast was classed as a special for the Juneteenth holiday.

According to Nielsen, ABC World News Tonight averaged 7.448 million total viewers and 1.038 million viewers in the demo for the week of June 16. This was up +3% in total viewers and +4% in the demo compared to the week prior. In comparison to the same period in 2024, the show was up +4% in total viewers and +9% in the demo.