Press release - Ratings

July 29, 2026

THE #1 PROGRAM ON ALL TELEVISION FOR THE 15TH WEEK IN A ROW IS ‘WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH DAVID MUIR’ — AND #1 NEWSCAST IN TOTAL VIEWERS, ADULTS 25-54 AND ADULTS 18-49, BEATING NBC BY 1.5 MILLION AND CBS BY 4.2 MILLION

‘World News Tonight’ Grows Year to Year Across the Board for 3rd Consecutive Week

 ‘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

ABC News*

For the 15th consecutive week, “World News Tonight with David Muir” stood as the No. 1 program in Total Viewers (8.143 million) on all of broadcast and cable (excluding sports) during the week of July 20, 2026, based on Live+Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings from Nielsen Media Research

  • “World News Tonight with David Muir” ranked as the No. 1 newscast in all of broadcast and cable in Total Viewers (8.143 million), Adults 25-54 (1.050 million) and Adults 18-49 (820,000).
  • “World News Tonight” outdelivered “NBC Nightly News” (6.606 million, 960,000 and 735,000, respectively) in Total Viewers (+23%/+1.537 million), Adults 25-54 (+9%/+90,000) and Adults 18-49 (+12%/+85,000).
  • “World News Tonight” increased its lead over “NBC Nightly News” week to week in Adults 25-54 (+27% – 90,000 vs. 71,000) and Adults 18-49 (+21% – 85,000 vs. 70,000).
  • For the third straight week, “World News Tonight” improved year to year in all key target demos: Total Viewers (+8%/+629,000 – 8.143 million vs. 7.514 million), Adults 25-54 (+6%/+61,000 –1.050 million vs. 989,000) and Adults 18-49 (+16%/+115,000 –820,000 vs. 705,000).
  • “World News Tonight” (8.143 million, 1.050 million and 820,000, respectively) beat “CBS Evening News” (3.954 million, 516,000 and 380,000, respectively) by triple digits in Total Viewers (+106%/+4.189 million), Adults 25-54 (+103%/+534,000) and Adults 18-49 (+116%/+440,000).
  • “World News Tonight” increased its lead over “CBS Evening News” versus the year-ago week in Total Viewers (+6% – 4.189 million vs. 3.942 million) and Adults 18-49 (+11% – 440,000 vs. 397,000).
  • Season to date, “World News Tonight” (8.330 million) is ranking No. 1 in Total Viewers for the 10th straight year, based on Most Current Big Data+Panel Ratings. “World News Tonight” is leading “NBC Nightly News” (6.517 million) by 1.813 million and “CBS Evening News” (4.050 million) by 4.280 million. In fact, “World News Tonight” is growing its Total Viewer lead over NBC compared to the same point last season (+8% — 1.813 million vs. 1.686 million) to its largest in 31 years — since the 1994-1995 season. “World News Tonight” is also delivering its largest Total Viewer season lead over the CBS program in at least 34 years — since at least the 1991-1992 season; the Nielsen electronic database started in September 1991. In addition, “World News Tonight” is delivering its largest season viewership in 5 years, growing in Total Viewers compared to the same point last season (+5%/+367,000 – 8.330 million vs. 7.963 million) — since the 2020-2021 season.
  • “World News Tonight” is ranking No. 1 in Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 for the 7th season in a row. “World News Tonight” (1.037 million and 760,000, respectively) is leading NBC (937,000 and 760,000, respectively) by 100,000 Adults 25-54 and by 103,000 Adults 18-49. Additionally, “World News Tonight” is widening margins with “CBS Evening News” (523,000 and 381,000, respectively) in Adults 25-54 (+6% – 514,000 vs. 486,000) and Adults 18-49 (+7% – 379,000 vs. 355,000) versus the comparable weeks last season.

NOTE: On Thursday (7/23/26) and Friday (7/24/26), “World News Tonight” was retitled to “WNT-ABC.” On Friday, “CBS Evening News” was retitled to “CBS Evening Nws,” and “NBC Nightly News” was retitled to “NBC Nitely News.” The retitled telecasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages. The weekly averages of “World News Tonight” are based on three days (Monday-Wednesday), while the weekly averages of “CBS Evening News” and “NBC Nightly 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 July 20, 2026)

TOTAL VIEWERS ADULTS 25-54 ADULTS 18-49
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT 8,143,000 1,050,000 820,000
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS 6,606,000 960,000 735,000
CBS EVENING NEWS 3,954,000 516,000 380,000

Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, Week of 7/20/2026. Season to date: Most Current Data Stream: 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 7/26/26) and 2024-2025 Season (9/23/24 – 7/27/25). Average audience based on regularly-titled telecasts only.

*COPYRIGHT ©2026 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All photography is copyrighted material and is for editorial use only. Images are not to be archived, altered, duplicated, resold, retransmitted or used for any other purposes without written permission of ABC News. Images are distributed to the press to publicize current programming. Any other usage must be licensed.

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