Marks Third Consecutive Week of Topping ABC in A25-54 for One Night
‘Nightly’ Delivering Closest Demo Gaps vs. ABC in 6 Years in Current Season
Week of September 29 Highlights
Ratings reflect the change to Nielsen Big Data, which combines Smart TV and cable set top box data with Nielsen’s existing household panel.
- Nightly News ranks #1 in both key demos on Tuesday (the only night ABC was rated), marking the third consecutive week of topping ABC in A25-54 for one night
- Nightly News delivers its closest demo gaps vs. ABC in six years for the current season
- Nightly News increases its total viewership vs. last week by +99,000 and was the only evening newscast to grow in A18-49 vs. last year, +3,000
- Nightly News narrows across-the-board gaps vs. ABC vs. last year, including by 41% in A25-54 and 77% in A18-49
- Nightly News is the #4 most-watched show of the week with 5.8 million total viewers (LS, excluding specials, sports & syndication
WEEK OF 9/29/2025
- Averages 5.8 million total viewers, topping CBS by +2.216 million (+62%)
- Nightly News increase viewership vs. last week by +99,000
- Nightly News closes viewership gap vs. ABC by 1% vs. last year
- Averages 775,000 A25-54 viewers, beating CBS by +376,000 (+94%)
- Nightly News wins Tuesday as the #1 newscast in A25-54
- Nightly News’ A25-54 gap vs. ABC is 50% better vs. prior year at this point in the season, marking its closest demo gap vs. the network in 6 years
- Nightly News narrows the A25-54 gap vs. ABC by 41% vs. last year
- Averages 526,000 A18-49 viewers, beating CBS by +235,000 (+81%)
- Nightly News wins Tuesday as the #1 newscast in A18-49
- Nightly News is the only evening newscast to grow in A18-49 vs. last year +3,000
- Nightly News narrows the A18-49 gap vs. ABC by 77% vs. last year
- Nightly News closes the A18-49 gap vs. ABC by 24% vs. last week
- Nightly News’ A18-49 gap vs. ABC is 67% better vs. prior year at this point in the season, marking its closest A18-49 gap vs. ABC in 6 years
WEEK OF 9/29/2025
| Program | P25-54 Imps | P18-49 Imps | P2+ Imps |
| NBC NIGHTLY NEWS | 775 | 526 | 5,800 |
| CBS EVENING NEWS | 399 | 291 | 3,584 |
| ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT | 844 | 552 | 7,334 |
Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, 9/29/2025-10/5/2025. Average audience based on regularly-titled telecasts only.
Note: ABC World News Tonight was based on 1 day (Tuesday), retitling on Monday due to NFL impact (MNF). Wednesday and Thursday retitles may be due to ABC airing MLB playoff games earlier in the afternoon, though with no direct impact to WNT. Friday was retitled for unknown reasons, but was the lowest-rated day of the week.
