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Jimmy Kimmel would never say The Late Show’s cancellation by CBS was a good thing — quite the opposite, actually, as he has been outspoken in support of Stephen Colbert and proclaimed late-night is “being poisoned” — but the numbers don’t lie. Both Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC and Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show on NBC have seen their ratings increase since Colbert took his final bow. The Eye Network’s ratings battle with its fellow broadcasting giants doesn’t end there, though, with CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil seeing some interesting trends in the latest numbers.
This year has been quite a tumultuous one for CBS so far under new leadership, from the cancellation of two scripted series to a daytime staffing shakeup and the recent firings from 60 Minutes’ staff. So it was probably something of a relief to see some upward trends in the ratings. Tony Dokoupil’s CBS Evening News finished the week of June 1 with 3.8 million total viewers — 560,000 in the coveted 25-54 demographic, according to AdWeek (via TV Insider). That’s an increase over the previous week of 1 percent in total viewers and 14 percent in the demo.
That’s good news, to be sure, for CBS, but there’s a catch — CBS Evening News still fell in a distant third place behind its competition, with ABC’s World News Tonight, hosted by David Muir, taking the top spot. Here’s how last week's numbers broke down:
SHOW | TOTAL VIEWERS | VIEWERS IN 25-54 DEMO |
|---|---|---|
ABC World News Tonight | 7.66 million | 974,000 |
NBC Nightly News | 6.304 million | 892,000 |
CBS Evening News | 3.814 million | 560,000 |
Compared to a week earlier, ABC was down 2 percent in total viewers but increased in the demo by 1 percent, while NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas closed the gap with ABC by increasing 6 percent in overall viewership, 12 percent in the demo.
Year-over-year numbers showed CBS’ evening news program falling 2 percent overall but increasing 8 percent in the demo, while ABC and NBC saw larger gains from 2025 — World News Tonight is up 9 percent overall, 7 percent in the demo, and Nightly News is up 16 percent in both total viewers and the 25-54 demographic (where the majority of advertisements are targeted).
Ratings are particularly important for CBS News right now amidst all of its staffing changes and rumors surrounding new editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, but it’s not just the CBS evening program that’s keeping a close watch. The morning shows on ABC and NBC have been back and forth, with Good Morning America and The Today Show jockeying for the No. 1 spot. (CBS Mornings remains in a distant third place.)
Today has led more than not, due in part to the ratings boost it got in February in the days after Savannah Guthrie’s 84-year-old mother went missing. However, the morning show did not get the bump it expected when Guthrie returned to The Today Show in April, allowing Good Morning America to close the gap.
As for CBS Evening News, we’ll have to see if these latest numbers indicate an upward trend for Tony Dokoupil, after some backlash over the ouster of previous anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois (Stephen Colbert showed his feelings about it with his middle finger).
You can catch the evening news program at 6:30 p.m. ET weeknights on CBS.
