ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas finished the week of August 24 with gains in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo.
WNT finished with its best demo performance since the week of Jan. 13, 2025, while Nightly News crossed the 7-million-mark in total viewers, giving it its largest audience since the week of Feb. 16.
CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil had a good bounce back in the advertiser-coveted demo, surging double digits percentage points to finish above 500,000 viewers; however, CBS News’ program saw declines in total viewers.
Note: ABC World Tonight and CBS Evening News’ weekly averages are based on four days (Monday-Thursday), while the weekly average of NBC Nightly News is based on three days (Monday-Wednesday). Friday’s edition (08/28/26) of ABC and CBS News’ broadcasts were retitled to WNT-ABC and CBS Evening Nws, respectively. While Thursday’s (08/27/2026) and Friday’s ABC News and NBC News broadcasts were retitled to NBC Nitely News. These broadcasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages.
According to national live+same-day big data plus program ratings from Nielsen, ABC World News Tonight averaged 8.731 million total viewers and 1.219 million Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of Aug. 24. The evening newscast was up +3% among total viewers and +15% among A25-54 viewers compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance during the same week in 2025* (the week beginning Aug. 25), WNT was up +24% in total viewers and +40% in the demo.
NBC Nightly News finished in the No. 2 position in total viewers and the demo, averaging 7.052 million and 1.07 million viewers, respectively. Compared to the previous week, Nightly News grew by +6% in total viewers and +4% in the demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News was up by +33% in total viewers and +57% in the demo.
CBS Evening News closed out the week of Aug. 24 with 3.916 million total viewers and 531,000 demo viewers. CBS News’ newscast slid by -1% in total viewers but finished with double-digit gains of +16% in the demo compared to the previous week—the only newscast to lose viewers in one of the measured categories. Its year-ago week numbers showed CBS Evening News up +1% in total viewers but down -11% in the demo—the only news program to shed viewers in one of the categories within this yearly comparison.
*Please note that year-over-year comparisons are based on Nielsen Big Data+Panel (2026) vs. Panel (2025) measurements.
August 24, 2026 (Nielsen Big Data + Panel):
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
| • Total Viewers: | 8,731,000 | 7,052,000 | 3,916,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,219,000 | 1,070,000 | 531,000 |
