Marks 16 Weeks of Across-the-Board Growth vs. Last Year; Best Streak for A25-54 Since November 2008
Remains Only Evening Newscast to Grow in Total Viewers, A25-54 & A18-49 Season-to-Date
Week of May 18 Highlights
Tom anchored Monday-Thursday.
- Nightly News wins the key A2-54 demo on Tuesday
- Nightly News delivers its best streak of year-over-year growth in the demo since November 2008
- Nightly News marks 16 weeks of across-the-board growth vs. last year
- Nightly News delivers its best streak of year-over-year growth for total viewers since August 2020
- Nightly News closes the year-over-year A25-54 gap vs ABC by 41%
- Nightly News continues to deliver its closest key demo gap vs. ABC in six years for the current season
- Nightly News is the only network evening newscast to grow its viewership across the board vs. last season
Week of May 18 Stats
- Averages 6.1 million total viewers, topping CBS by +2.082 million (+52%)
- Increases total viewership vs. last year by +209,000, last week by +123,000
- Grows total audience season to date by +113,000
- Averages 867,000 A25-54 viewers, beating CBS by +262,000 (+43%)
- Increases A25-54 viewers vs. last year by +72,000, +36,000 vs. last week
- Narrows the A25-54 gap vs. ABC by 41% vs. last year, 24% vs. last week
- Nightly News’ A25-54 gap vs. ABC is 42% better vs. prior year at this point in the season, marking its closest demo gap vs. the network in 6 years
- Nightly News is the only evening newscast to grow vs. last season, +58,000
- Averages 639,000 A18-49 viewers, beating CBS by +241,000 (+60%)
- Increases A18-49 viewers vs. last year by +72,000, +53,000 vs. last week
- Narrows the A18-49 gap vs. ABC by 43% vs. last year, 28% vs. last week
- Nightly News’ A18-49 gap vs. ABC is 28% better vs. prior year at this point in the season
- Nightly News is the only evening newscast to grow in A18-49 viewers vs. last season, +55,000
WEEK OF 5/18/2026
Program P25-54 P18-49 P2+ Imps Imps Imps NBC NIGHTLY NEWS 867 639 6,093 CBS EVENING NEWS 605 398 4,011 ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT 966 727 8,187 Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, Week of 5/18/2026 through Thursday, 5/21/2026. Average audience based on regularly-titled telecasts only.
Note: Nightly News was retitled on Wednesday due to NBA Playoffs (Conference Finals Game 2) airing in prime time. ABC World News Tonight was retitled on Thursday.
