Topline
The network morning, evening news and late night shows have seen their audiences fall by nearly half in the last decade—after some, including The Hollywood Reporter, claim the monoculture has officially ended—as streaming and social media platforms have changed the media landscape.
TV ratings have plunged after the surge in social media and streaming platforms.
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Key Facts
The three largest network morning shows—NBC’s “Today,” ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “CBS Mornings”—have seen a shared drop in viewership of roughly half their audiences in the last 12 years.
“Good Morning America,” still the most popular of the big three, was watched by an average of 2.6 million people in the 2024-2025 television season, down 46% from 4.9 million in 2015-2016.
“Today” saw a 45% viewership decline over the same period (from 4.71 million viewers to 2.6 million) and “CBS Mornings” dropped 47% in viewers, from 3.67 million to 1.94 million.
NBC has been the biggest loser of late night audiences over the last decade—from the 2015-2016 season, Jimmy Fallon’s average “Tonight Show” audience has fallen 64% from 3.6 million viewers to 1.3 million in 2025.
ABC’s longstanding show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” lost about 13% of its audience in the last 10 years (from 2.3 million to 2 million in 2025) and CBS’ “Late Show,” which Stephen Colbert took over in 2015, managed the smallest drop of its peers with a decline of 2.75 million viewers in its first season to 2.5 million (or 9%) in 2025.
Network nightly news shows have fared slightly better than their morning and late show counterparts, though CBS’ “Evening News” and NBC’s “Nightly News” have still seen dramatic viewership declines of 41% and 30%, respectively, since 2015.
Average viewership for network morning shows from 2015 to 2025.
Nielsen data
Average viewership for network nightly news shows from 2015 to 2025.
Nielsen data
Average viewership for network late night shows from 2015 to 2025.
Nielsen data
News Peg
The Hollywood Reporter recently named 2014 the year the monoculture—when the general population had a greater shared cultural diet—died. It singled out the 2014 Oscars ceremony (when host Ellen DeGeneres shared a selfie with a dozen other A-listers—Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and more) as the last truly shared pop culture experience before viewership fractured beyond repair. Today, linear viewership (watching set programming at a specific time) has plummeted, and audiences have splintered across television, streaming services and social media.
Big Number
24. That’s how many network and cable shows had regular audiences of 12 million or more over seven days in 2014, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Now, there are three: “Marshals” (CBS), “Tracker” (CBS) and “High Potential” (ABC).
David Muir Holds Onto Abc News Audience
ABC’s “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir.
ABC via Getty Images
“ABC World News Tonight,” which has been hosted by David Muir since 2014, has managed to hold onto much of its audience over the same time period. ”World News Tonight” averaged 7.6 million total viewers in the 2024-25 season, only a 9% drop from the 8.3 million in 2015-16 and roughly on par with the 7.7 million viewers the show averaged in the 2012-2013 season with Diane Sawyer as host. Muir claimed the title of the most trusted nightly news host in 2025, according to a poll conducted last year, and was the second-most trusted among more than 80 TV news personalities the poll asked about (behind NBC’s “Today” show star Al Roker).
Further Reading
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2026/04/21/no-more-monoculture-how-the-morning-news-late-night-shows-lost-half-their-viewers/
