ADWEEK; ABC, CBS, NBC By Mark Mwachiro --> ABC World News Tonight with David Muir won the week in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo for the week of August 17. However, the newscast’s demo lead shrank to just 34,000 viewers over NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas.
Nightly News finished the week as the only broadcast to record no viewership losses in both measured categories. In addition, it finished with more than a million viewers in the coveted demo.
Meanwhile, CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil was the only one to record gains in total viewers during the just-concluded week.
Note: CBS Evening News’ weekly average is based on four days (Monday-Thursday), while the weekly averages of ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News are based on three days (Monday-Wednesday). Friday’s edition (08/21/26) of CBS News’ broadcast was retitled to CBS Evening Nws. While Thursday’s (08/20/2026) and Friday’s ABC News and NBC News broadcasts were retitled to WNT-ABC and NBC Nitely News, respectively. These broadcasts are 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 8.462 million total viewers and 1.059 million Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of Aug. 17. The evening newscast was flat among total viewers and down -9% among A25-54 viewers compared to the previous week . Looking at its performance during the same week in 2025* ( the week beginning Aug. 18 ), WNT was up +22% in total viewers and +26% in the demo.
NBC Nightly News placed second in total viewers and the demo, averaging 6.634 million and 1.025 million viewers, respectively. Compared to the previous week, Nightly News was flat in total viewers and up +3% in the demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News was up by +17% in total viewers and +29% in the demo.
CBS Evening News finished the week of Aug. 17 with 3.955 million total viewers and 458,000 demo viewers. CBS News’ newscast was up by +4% in total viewers but down -12% in the demo compared to the previous week. Its year-ago week numbers showed CBS Evening News up +5% in total viewers but down -4% in the demo.
*Please note that year-over-year comparisons are based on Nielsen Big Data+Panel (2026) vs. Panel (2025) measurements.
August 17, 2026 (Nielsen Big Data + Panel):
Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, Week of 8/17/2026. Season to date: Most Current Data Stream: 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 8/23/26) and 2024-2025 Season (9/23/24 – 8/24/25). 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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