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Press release – Ratings
August 26, 2026
‘World News Tonight’ Grows Double Digits Year to Year Across Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49, Delivering Its Largest Viewership in 5 Weeks
‘World News Tonight’ Is #1 for 10th Year in a Row, With Largest Margin Over NBC in 31 Years and CBS in 34 Years and Highest Season Viewership in 5 Years
For the 19th week running, “World News Tonight with David Muir” stood as the No. 1 program in Total Viewers (8.462 million) on all of broadcast and cable (excluding sports) during the week of Aug 17, 2026, based on Live+Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings from Nielsen Media Research.
NOTE: On Thursday (8/20/26) and Friday (8/21/26), “World News Tonight” was retitled to “WNT-ABC” and “NBC Nightly News” was retitled to “NBC Nitely News.” On Friday, “CBS Evening News” was retitled to “CBS Evening Nws.” The retitled telecasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages. The weekly averages of “World News Tonight” and “NBC Nightly News” are based on three days (Monday-Wednesday), while the weekly averages for “CBS Evening News” are based on four days (Monday-Thursday).
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” airs 6:30-7:00 p.m. ET on ABC. Chris Dinan is the executive producer of the broadcast.
EVENING NEWS (Week of Aug. 17, 2026)
Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, Week of 8/17/2026. Season to date: Most Current Data Stream: 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 8/23/26) and 2024-2025 Season (9/23/24 – 8/24/25). Average audience based on regularly titled telecasts only.
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