Cbs Evening News drew 3.806 million total viewers and 503,000 Adults 25-54 viewers for the week of May 11, topping 500,000 in the key demo for the first time since the week of April 27. The CBS broadcast was up 3 percent in total viewers from the prior week and up 6 percent among adults 25-54.
The gain mattered because the evening-news race remains sharply uneven. ABC World News Tonight averaged 7.889 million total viewers and 962,000 adults 25-54 in the same week, keeping its lead in both categories, while NBC Nightly News finished second with 5.97 million total viewers and 831,000 adults 25-54.
For CBS, the week marked a small but meaningful step away from the worrying record lows that had hung over the newscast in recent months. It also put the program back above its recent April 27 demo mark, even if it still lagged far behind ABC and NBC in the broader national race. ABC World News Tonight, anchored by David Muir, remained the No. 1 evening newscast and, by total viewers, the No. 1 program on all of television.
The weekly averages were based on four days for CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News because Friday's broadcasts were retitled and excluded from the weekly and season averages. On May 15, 2026, NBC News aired NBC Nitely News and CBS News aired CBS Evening Nws, a scheduling quirk that slightly reshaped the weekly picture but did not alter the overall ranking at the top.
The numbers also show how much ground CBS still has to make up. Against the same period in 2025, CBS Evening News was up just 1 percent in total viewers and flat in Adults 25-54, a modest year-over-year result compared with ABC's 13 percent total-viewer gain and 8 percent rise in the demo. NBC Nightly News, meanwhile, was down 3 percent in total viewers and 8 percent in Adults 25-54 from the previous week, though it was still up 9 percent and 7 percent, respectively, from the same week in 2025.
The broader lesson from the week of May 11 is simple: CBS is no longer sinking in the key demo, but it is not close to catching the leader. For now, the cbs evening news has stabilized enough to clear one symbolic threshold. The harder test is whether it can do that again while closing the gap with ABC and holding off the weeks when the numbers dip back down.
