Nightly News’ Overtakes ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ in A25-54, Tuesday Delivers Largest Single Day Win over Network in Four Years
Marks First Fully Rated Win over ABC since Llamas Began in June
January 13, 2026 – NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas is the #1 evening newscast for the first week of 2026, dominating the key A25-54 demo amid a major breaking news cycle. The NBC flagship newscast averages nearly a million viewers in the key demo (992,000) and 6.7 million total viewers.
Nightly News overtook ABC’s World News Tonight for three consecutive nights beginning Monday, with Tuesday delivering the newscast’s biggest daily demo win over ABC in four years, excluding the Paris 2024 Olympics. This also marks the first fully rated weekly win over ABC since Llamas began as anchor in June. Nightly News is also the #2 most-watched TV show of the week in A25-54.
Season to Date, Nightly News continues to mark the closest demo gaps vs. ABC in six years, including nearly 50% in A25-54 and 34% in A18-49.
Week of January 5 Stats
Averages 992,000 A25-54 viewers, beating ABC by +3,000 and leading CBS by +459,000 (+86%)
- Marks 47-week high in A25-54 viewers (best since 2/10/25)
- Nightly News’ A25-54 gap vs. ABC is 47% better vs. prior year at this point in the season, marking its closest demo gap vs. the network in 6 years
Averages 6.725 million total viewers, topping CBS by +2.559 million (+61%)
- Marks 46-week high in total viewers (best since 2/17/25)
- Nightly News closes total viewership gap vs. ABC by 15% in year-over-year measurements
- Nightly News’ total viewer gap vs. ABC is 7% better vs. prior year at this point in the season
Averages 707,000 A18-49 viewers, beating CBS by +284,000 (+67%)
- Marks 6-week high in A18-49 (best since 11/24/25)
- Nightly News narrows the A18-49 gap vs. ABC by 81% vs. last year
- Nightly News’ A18-49 gap vs. ABC is 34% better vs. prior year at this point in the season
###
WEEK OF 1/5/2026
| Program | P25-54 | P18-49 | P2+ |
| Imps | Imps | Imps | |
| NBC NIGHTLY NEWS | 992 | 707 | 6,725 |
| CBS EVENING NEWS | 533 | 423 | 4,166 |
| ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT | 989 | 748 | 8,078 |
Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, 1/5/2026-1/11/2026. Average audience based on regularly-titled telecasts only.
