Marks 15 Weeks of Across-the-Board Growth vs. Last Year; Closest Total Viewer Gap vs. ABC in Four Weeks
Llamas Anchored from Beijing as the Only Evening News Anchor on the Ground from Tuesday-Friday
Week of May 11 Highlights
Hallie Jackson anchored Monday.
- Nightly News delivers its best streak of year-over-year growth in the key A25-54 demo since November 2008
- Nightly News marks 15 weeks of across-the-board growth vs. last year
- Nightly News posts its closest total viewer gap vs. ABC in four weeks
- 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 2%
- 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 11 Stats
- Averages 6 million total viewers, topping CBS by +2.164 million (+57%)
- Increases total viewership vs. last year by +217,000
- Week over week, Nightly News closes the total viewer gap vs. ABC by 7%
- Grows total audience season to date by +121,000
- Averages 831,000 A25-54 viewers, beating CBS by +328,000 (+65%)
- Increases A25-54 viewers vs. last year by +80,000
- Narrows the A25-54 gap vs. ABC by 2% vs. last year
- Nightly News’ A25-54 gap vs. ABC is 43% 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, +60,000
- Averages 586,000 A18-49 viewers, beating CBS by +245,000 (+72%)
- Increases A18-49 viewers vs. last year by +74,000
- Nightly News’ A18-49 gap vs. ABC is 29% 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, +56,000
WEEK OF 5/11/2026
| Program | P25-54 | P18-49 | P2+ |
| Imps | Imps | Imps | |
| NBC NIGHTLY NEWS | 831 | 586 | 5,970 |
| CBS EVENING NEWS | 503 | 341 | 3,806 |
| ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT | 962 | 709 | 7,889 |
Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, Week of 5/11/2026. Average audience based on regularly-titled telecasts only
Note: Nightly News was retitled on Friday due to MLB local preemptions. CBS Evening News was also retitled on Friday.
