NBC, ABC & CBS Evening News Ratings: David Muir Has Dramatic Swing in Key Demo

The evening news ratings for the week of August 24 are in, and it’s good news for ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, which posted its best performance in the Adults 25-54 demographic since January 2025.

According to AdWeek, citing national live+same-day big data plus program ratings from Nielsen, World News Tonight averaged 8.731 million total viewers and 1.219 million demo viewers for the week of August 24. This was up 3 percent in total viewers and up 15 percent in the key demo compared to the week before.

Compared to the same period in 2025, the show was up 24 percent in total viewers and up 40 percent in the demo. In fact, the demo number was the best since the week of January 13, 2025.

NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas also saw gains for the week of August 24, averaging 7.052 million total viewers and 1.07 million demo viewers. Compared with the prior week, the show was up 6 percent in total viewers and up 4 percent in the demo.

Year over year, Nightly News was up 33 percent in total viewers and up 57 percent in the key demo.

Meanwhile, CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil averaged 3.916 million total viewers and 531,000 demo viewers for the week of August 24. This was down 1 percent in total viewers but up 16 percent in the demo compared to the previous week. It was the only newscast to see a drop in either measured category.

Compared to last year, CBS Evening News was up 1 percent in total viewers but down 11 percent in the demo. Again, it was the only newscast to post a decrease in one of the yearly comparison categories.

It should be noted that ABC World News Tonight and CBS Evening News‘ weekly averages are based on four days (Monday to Thursday), while NBC Nightly News‘ average is based on three days (Monday to Wednesday).

CBS Evening News, Weekdays, 6:30/5:30c, CBS

World News Tonight, Weekdays, 6:30/5:30c, ABC

NBC Nightly News, Weekdays, 6:30/5:30c, NBC