Press release - Ratings
April 14, 2026
WITH NEARLY 10 MILLION VIEWERS, ABC NEWS’ SPECIAL LIVE COVERAGE OF ARTEMIS II’S RETURN, ANCHORED BY DAVID MUIR, IS #1 ACROSS THE BOARD — MORE THAN DOUBLING NBC AND CBS AND ECLIPSING THE COMBINED VIEWERSHIP OF CNN, FOX NEWS AND MS NOW

ABC News’ “Artemis II: Coming Home” anchored by “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir (Friday, 7:30-8:30 p.m. EDT) ranked No. 1 in Total Viewers (9.770 million), Adults 25-54 (2.362 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.863 million) among the competitive coverage of the landing on Friday, April 10, 2026, based on Live+Same Day Panel Data Program Ratings from Nielsen Media Research.
- As Artemis II completed its historic mission to the moon, humanity’s first lunar space mission in over five decades, ABC News’ “Artemis II: Coming Home” outperformed CBS’ “Artemis II Return” (4.584 million, 843,000 and 604,000, respectively) and NBC’s “Artemis II Splashdown” (3.912 million, 946,000 and 705,000, respectively).
- In fact, ABC News’ “Artemis II: Coming Home” beat the combined performances of CBS and NBC across the board: Total Viewers (+15% – 9.770 million vs. 8.496 million), Adults 25-54 (+32% – 2.362 million vs. 1.789 million) and Adults 18-49 (+42% – 1.863 million vs. 1.309 million).
- Head-to-head in the hour, ABC News’ “Artemis II: Coming Home” (9.770 million, 2.362 million and 1.863 million) also outdelivered the combined coverage (9.030 million, 1.331 million and 964,000, respectively) of the landing on Fox News Channel (4.999 million, 543,000 and 368,000, respectively), CNN (2.652 million 597,000 and 463,000, respectively) and MSNOW (1.379 million, 191,000 and 133,000, respectively).
Source: Nielsen, Total Viewers, Adults 25-54, and Adults 18-49, National Live + Same Day Panel Only Program Ratings for 4/10/26. ABC averages are based on ABC News’ Multi-Platform simulcast of the Artemis II landing (across ABC, ABC News Live and National Geographic).
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