ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas closed out the final week of January on an upswing, with both growing in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo.
For WNT, this past week was its most-watched in over three years, with the newscast averaging over 9 million total viewers across four days (Monday through Thursday).
Nightly News is making things interesting in the demo, with 142,000 viewers separating it from WNT. Both newscasts finished the week averaging over a million demo viewers.
Meanwhile, CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil was the only evening broadcast to register across-the-board declines.
According to national live+same-day big data plus program ratings from Nielsen, ABC World News Tonight averaged 9.244 million total viewers and 1.182 million Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of January 26. The evening newscast grew by +3% in total viewers and +9% in the A25-54 demo compared to the previous week. Looking at its performance for the same week in 2025* (the week beginning January 27), WNT was up +11% in total viewers and +4% in the demo—the only newscast with gains in both categories within this yearly comparison.
NBC Nightly News finished second in total viewers and the demo, averaging 7.150 million and 1.040 million viewers, respectively. Compared to the previous week, Nightly News was up +4% in total viewers and in the demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News grew by +3% in total viewers but fell by -5% in the demo.
CBS Evening News had 4.538 million total viewers and 623,000 viewers in the demo for the week of January 26. The Dokoupil-led broadcast was down by -7% in total viewers and -8% in the demo compared to the previous week. Its year-ago week numbers showed the newscast dropped by -6% in total viewers and -9% in the demo.
*Please note that year-over-year comparisons are based on Nielsen Big Data+Panel (2025) vs. Panel (2025) measurements.
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
| • Total Viewers: | 9,244,000 | 7,150,000 | 4,538,000 |
| • A25-54: | 1,182,000 | 1,040,000 | 623,000 |
Source: Nielsen, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 National Live + Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings. Current Week (w/o 1/26/26), Previous Week (w/o 1/19/26) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 1/27/25). Season to date: Most Current Data Stream: 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 2/1/26) and 2024-2025 Season (9/23/24 – 2/2/25).
