NBC, ABC & CBS Evening News Ratings: David Muir’s Lead Shrinks in Key Demo

Dan ClarendonSun, July 26, 2026 at 4:32 PM UTC

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David Muir anchoring 'ABC World News Tonight' - Heidi Gutman/ABC

CBS Evening News is still lagging far behind its competition, but the race between ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News is getting tighter. In the all-important Adults 25–54 demographic for the week of July 13, David Muir’s ABC newscast only has a 7-percent edge over Tom Llamas’ NBC program.

ABC World News Tonight averaged 8.476 million total viewers and 1.073 million 25-to-54-year-old demo viewers for that week, according to Nielsen ratings shared by TVNewser. That’s up 2 percent in total viewers and up 1 percent in demo viewers over last week and up 17 percent in total viewers and up 3 percent in demo viewers over the same week last year.

NBC/YouTube

NBC Nightly News averaged 6.684 million total viewers and 1.002 million demo viewers, just 71,000 demo viewers shy of its ABC competitor. The Llamas-anchored program is up 5 percent in total viewers and 7 percent in demo viewers compared to last week, and it’s up 20 percent in both total viewers and the demo compared to the same week in 2025.

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Meanwhile, Tony Dokoupil’s troubles continue. CBS Evening News, which he anchors, averaged 3.754 million total viewers and 472,000 demo viewers. The program is the only broadcast TV evening newscast to have lost viewers since last week, dropping 1 percent in total viewers and 5 percent in the demo. It also happens to have dropped 1 percent in total viewers and 5 percent in the demo over the same week last year.

In a press release this week, ABC hailed the success of World News Tonight, saying the newscast has now ranked as the No. 1 program in total viewers on all of broadcast and cable — excluding sports — for the 13th straight week. The network also said Muir’s program ranks as the No. 1 newscast in all of broadcast and cable in total viewers, Adults 25–54, and Adults 18–49 for the week of July 13. World News Tonight also gained viewers in all three of those groups for the third straight week and posted double-digit gains year-over-year in those groups, too.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”