ADWEEK; ABC, CBS, NBC By Mark Mwachiro --> Heading into the long Labor Day holiday weekend, NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas eked out a win over ABC World News Tonight with David Muir in the Adults 25-54 demo for the week of August 31.
A thousand additional demo viewers were all it took for Nightly News to slide past WNT during the just-concluded week. However, ABC News’ morning show finished as the most-watched broadcast in total viewers for the week.
Meanwhile, CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil was the only newscast with growth in both measured categories.
Note: The weekly averages of ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News are based on different periods: ABC News’ average is based on three days (Monday – Wednesday), while CBS News’ was based on four days (Monday – Thursday), and NBC News’ averages are based on two days (Monday – Tuesday). On Thursday (09/03/26) and Friday (09/04/26), WNT was retitled to WNT-ABC. Friday’s edition of CBS Evening News was retitled to CBS Evening Nws, and Wednesday (09/02/2026), Thursday, and Friday’s edition of Nightly News was retitled to NBC Nitely News, respectively. These broadcasts were excluded from the weekly and season averages.
According to national live+same-day big data plus program ratings from Nielsen, ABC World News Tonight averaged 8.508 million total viewers and 1.102 million Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of August 31. The evening newscast was down -3% among total viewers and -10% among A25-54 viewers compared to the previous week . Looking at its performance during the same week in 2025* ( the week beginning September 1 ), WNT was up +18% in total viewers and +23% in the demo.
NBC Nightly News finished in the No. 2 position in total viewers but won the demo, averaging 6.988 million and 1.103 million viewers, respectively. Compared with the previous week, Nightly News slid -1% in total viewers but gained +3% in the demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News was up by +24% in total viewers and +35% in the demo.
CBS Evening News closed out the week of Aug. 31 with 4.037 million total viewers and 544,000 demo viewers. CBS News’ newscast grew by +3% in total viewers and +2% in the demo compared to the previous week—the only newscast with gains in both measured categories. Its year-ago week numbers showed CBS Evening News up +9% in total viewers and +6% in the demo.
*Please note that year-over-year comparisons are based on Nielsen Big Data+Panel (2026) vs. Panel (2025) measurements.
August 31, 2026 (Nielsen Big Data + Panel):
Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, Week of 8/31/2026. Season to date: Most Current Data Stream: 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 9/6/26) and 2024-2025 Season (9/23/24 – 9/7/25). Average audience based on regularly titled telecasts only.
Mark Mwachiro is a TVNewser contributor who has been writing for the blog since March 2022. Based out of New York, Mark has also contributed to ADWEEK.
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