For the first time since taking over NBC Nightly News, the Tom Llamas-led show has bested ABC News’ World News Tonight in the key demographic.
For the week of January 5th, NBC Nightly News averaged 992,000 viewers in the Adults 25-54 demographic. That was just slightly ahead of the ABC News nightly newscast, which averaged an audience of 989,000 viewers from the key demo.
The figure marked a 47-week high for NBC News, its best performance since the week of February 10th last year.
Despite the win in the coveted demographic for NBC Nightly News, ABC News led the way in the total viewers sector. The David Muir-anchored newscast averaged 8.1 million viewers for the week. NBC Nightly News averaged 6.7 million viewers in the same period. That was a 5% week-over-week increase for ABC News, marking its largest overall audience in five weeks.
The performance for NBC Nightly News was its largest audience since the week of February 17, 2025.
In the first full week of Tony Dokoupil anchoring the CBS Evening News, the broadcast saw a 23% decline compared to the same week in 2025. The program averaged 4.2 million viewers for the week, with 533,000 coming in the Adults 25-54 demo. The in-demo viewership figure also dropped 23% compared to the same week last year.
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