Leads Evening News Competition in Year-over-Year Growth, Including Growing +61% in A25-54
Fourth Consecutive Week of Averaging over 1 Million A25-54 Viewers
WEEK OF August 24 HIGHLIGHTS
- Nightly News marks its largest audiences across the board in 6 months (best since 2/16/26)
- Nightly News leads the evening news competition in year-over-year growth across the board
- Nightly News scores its 30th consecutive week of across-the-board growth vs. last year
- Nightly News delivers its best streak of year-over-year growth on record
- Nightly News continues to deliver its closest key demo gap vs. ABC in seven years for the current season
- Nightly News posts the largest A25-54 and A18-49 viewer growth vs. last season among the evening newscasts, also up in total viewers
WEEK OF AUGUST 24 STATS
- Averages 7 million total viewers, topping CBS by +3.123 million (+79%)
- Increases total viewership vs. last year by +1.533 million (+28%) and last week by +418,000
- Narrows total viewer gap vs. ABC by 8% vs. last week and 7% vs. last year
- Grows total audience season to date by +296,000
- Averages 1.070 million A25-54 viewers, beating CBS by +538,000 (+101%)
- Increases A25-54 viewers vs. last year by +404,000 (+61%) and last week by +46,000
- Nightly News narrows the A25-54 gap vs. ABC by 37% vs. last year
- 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 7 years
- Leads the competition in A25-54 viewer growth vs. last season, up +99,000
- Averages 800,000 A18-49 viewers, beating CBS by +448,000 (+127%)
- Increases A18-49 viewers vs. last year by +320,000 (+67%) and by +70,000 vs. last week
- Nightly News’ A18-49 gap vs. ABC is 31% better vs. prior year at this point in the season, closest demo gap vs. the network in 2 years
- Leads the competition in A18-49 viewer growth vs. last season, up +89,000
WEEK OF 8/24/2026
| Program | P25-54 | P18-49 | P2+ |
| Imps | Imps | Imps | |
| NBC NIGHTLY NEWS | 1,070 | 800 | 7,052 |
| CBS EVENING NEWS | 532 | 352 | 3,929 |
| ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT | 1,220 | 877 | 8,734 |
Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, Week of 8/24/2026 through Thursday, 8/27/2026. Average audience based on regularly-titled telecasts only.
Note: Nightly News data reflects a 3-day average (Mon-Wed), retitling Thursday due to local NFL preseason preemptions and Friday for summer retitling. ABC and CBS were based on 4-day averages, retitling on Friday (CBS due to NFL preseason coverage).
