ADWEEK; ABC, CBS, NBC By Mark Mwachiro --> Viewers returned to the evening newscasts after the long holiday, with all three finishing in the plus column for total viewers for the week of July 6.
ABC World News Tonight with David Muir remained the most-watched newscast in total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo. It continued to stretch its demo lead over NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas , crossing the million-viewer mark and finishing with over 120,000 viewers more than NBC News’ program.
Meanwhile, the news was not all good for CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil . Even though it saw gains in total viewers, it was the only broadcast to fall in the ad-coveted demo.
Note: The weekly averages of ABC World News Tonight, NBC Nightly News, and CBS Evening News are based on four days (Monday-Thursday). Friday’s (07/10/2026) broadcasts were retitled to WNT-ABC, NBC Nitely News, and CBS Evening Nws. 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 with David Muir averaged 8.291 million total viewers and 1.058 million Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of July 6. The evening newscast was up +2% 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 July 7 ), WNT was up +14% in total viewers and +7% in the demo.
NBC Nightly News was in second place in total viewers and in the demo, averaging 6.380 million and 935,000 viewers, respectively. Compared to the previous week, Nightly News was up by +4% in total viewers and +9% in the demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News was up by +14% in total viewers and +9% in the demo.
CBS Evening News finished the week of July 6 with 3.788 million total viewers and 497,000 demo viewers. CBS News’ newscast grew by +1% in total viewers but was down by -1% in the demo compared to the previous week—the only newscast to lose viewers in either category. Its year-ago week numbers showed the newscast losing viewers by -2% among total viewers and -1% in the demo—the only newscast to lose viewers in this year-over-year comparison.
*Please note that year-over-year comparisons are based on Nielsen Big Data+Panel (2026) vs. Panel (2025) measurements.
July 6, 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 7/6/26), Previous Week (w/o 6/29/26), and Year-Ago Week (w/o 7/7/25). Season to date: Most Current Data Stream: 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 7/12/26) and 2024-2025 Season (9/23/24 – 7/13/25).
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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