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

The evening news ratings for the week of September 21 are in, and it was good news for ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, which rose significantly year over year and had its most-watched week to start a new season since 2020-21.

According to Adweek, citing national live+same-day big data plus program ratings from Nielsen, ABC World News Tonight averaged 8.388 million total viewers and 1.153 million viewers in the coveted Adults 25-54 demographic for the week of September 21. This was up 3 percent in total viewers and flat in the demo compared with the prior week.

Year over year, World News Tonight was up 17 percent in total viewers and a massive 35 percent in the key demo. It marked the 11th year that the program started a new season as the most-watched evening news broadcast.

NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas ranked second, averaging 6.495 million total viewers and 970,000 demo viewers for the week of September 21. This was down 1 percent in total viewers and down 9 percent in the demo compared to the previous week.

However, Nightly News was up year over year, increasing by 14 percent in total viewers and 20 percent in the key demo.

Meanwhile, CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil averaged 3.98 million total viewers and 497,000 demo viewers for the week of September 21. This was down 1 percent in total viewers and down 17 percent in the demo compared to the week before.

Compared to the same period in 2025, CBS Evening News was up 7 percent in total viewers and up 19 percent in the demo.

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