Sunday, May 24, 2026

Ukraine War No Help to ABC Evening News, Down 500K From Last Year, Only Lester Holt Holding Steady

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Someone is intent on slagging Norah O’Donnell and the CBS Evening News to the New York Post.

The Post is obsessed with the idea of somehow destroying O’Donnell until CBS fires her and replaces her with, who knows? LL Cool J maybe!

Well, ratings for “CBS Evening News” are only off a bit from last year at this very time.  The difference is about 400,000 viewers.

More surprisingly, ABC’s popular “Evening News” with David Muir is down by more, even with the Ukraine War. Last year at this time, Muir averaged 9.223 million peeps. Last week, Muir’s numbers were 8.735 million. That’s significant.

Of the three major networks, only NBC stayed on keel. Lester Holt had an average of 7.319 million last week. Last year, it 7.44 million. I’m not surprised. The NBC News is my go to, with CBS and then ABC my choices when news is breaking these days.

The Post’s obsession with O’Donnell is curious, and sexist. O’Donnell does a great job, and CBS News is always the best written report around. I don’t know who’s planting those stories, but they should cut it out already. And PS I do not know any of these people personally. I’m just going by the numbers and watching their shows.

 

 

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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