ADWEEK; ABC, CBS, NBC By Mark Mwachiro --> The lead-up to the July 4th weekend and America’s 250th birthday saw ABC World News Tonight with David Muir finish the week in positive territory in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo.
Both NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas and CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil finished the week of June 29 down in both measured categories. (Llamas also had a replacement all week.) A week after finishing with over 4 million total viewers, CBS Evening News dropped below that benchmark, barely clearing 500,000 viewers in the demo.
Note: The weekly averages of ABC News, NBC News, and CBS News are based on different periods: ABC News’ average is based on two days (Monday – Tuesday), while NBC News’ average is based on four days (Monday – Thursday), and CBS News’ average is based on three days (Monday – Wednesday). Wednesday and Thursday’s (07/01/26 and 07/02/2026) World News Tonight broadcast was retitled to WNT-ABC. Thursday’s CBS Evening News was retitled to CBS Evening Nws. All three broadcasts were coded as specials due to the July 4th holiday on Friday (07/03/2026). 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 8.128 million total viewers and 964,000 Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of June 29. The evening newscast grew by +8% in total viewers and +1% among A25-54 viewers compared to the previous week . Looking at its performance during the same week in 2025* ( the week beginning June 30 ), WNT was up +13% in total viewers but down -3% in the demo.
NBC Nightly News was second in total viewers and the demo, averaging 6.16 million and 856,000 viewers, respectively. Compared to the previous week, Nightly News, anchored by Hallie Jackson for the entire week, was down -3% in total viewers and -4% in the demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News was up by +12% in total viewers and the demo.
CBS Evening News finished the week of June 29 with 3.765 million total viewers and 501,000 demo viewers. CBS News’ newscast dropped by -6% in total viewers and -13% in the demo compared to the previous week. Its year-ago week numbers showed the newscast growing its audience by +1% among total viewers and +8% in the demo.
*Please note that year-over-year comparisons are based on Nielsen Big Data+Panel (2026) vs. Panel (2025) measurements.
June 29, 2026 (Nielsen Big Data + Panel):
Source: Nielsen, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54, and Adults 18-49 National Live + Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings. Current Week (w/o 6/29/26), Previous Week (w/o 6/22/26), and Year-Ago Week (w/o 6/30/25). Season to date: Most Current Data Stream: 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 7/5/26) and 2024-2025 Season (9/23/24 – 7/6/25).
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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