WITH LARGEST VIEWERSHIP IN 7 YEARS, ‘NIGHTLINE’ RANKS NO. 1 IN ALL KEY DEMOS FOR SEASON PREMIERE

For the opening week of the 2025-2026 season, ABC News’ “Nightline” ranked No. 1 in Total Viewers (1.200 million), Adults 25-54 (270,000) and Adults 18-49 (190,000) for the week of Sept. 22, 2025, based on Live+Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings from Nielsen Media Research, leading NBC’s “Late Night with Seth Meyers” in all key measures during premiere week for the 4th straight year.

• “Nightline” delivered substantial increases on the previous week across the board: Total Viewers (+62% – 1.200 million vs. 742,000), Adults 25-54 (+100% – 270,000 vs. 135,000) and Adults 18-49 (+118% – 190,000 vs. 87,000). “Nightline” drew its largest overall audience in nearly 2 years and delivered its strongest Adult 25-54 performance in 20 months — since weeks of 11/20/23 and 1/15/24, respectively.
• “Nightline” posted double-digit gains on the year-ago premiere week in Total Viewers (+14% – 1.200 million vs. 1.052 million), Adults 25-54 (+13% – 270,000 vs. 240,000) and Adults 18-49 (+13% – 190,000 vs. 168,000). 
• “Nightline” turned in its most-watched premiere week in 7 years and best premiere week performance in both key Adults demos in 5 years — since the opening weeks of the 2018-2019 and the 2020-2021 seasons, respectively.
• On Tuesday (9/23/25), “Nightline” delivered its most-watched telecast (1.867 million) in more than 5 years — since 4/15/20.

NOTE: On Friday (9/26/25), NBC’s “Seth Meyers” was retitled to “Seth Meyers-SM” due to being a repeat. NBC’s weekly averages are based on four days (Monday-Thursday).

ABC News’ “Nightline” is late-night television’s prestigious, award-winning news program featuring the most powerful, in-depth stories that shape our lives and the world around us. It is anchored by Juju Chang and Byron Pitts. Eman Varoqua is executive producer. The program airs weeknights from 12:35-1:05 a.m. EDT on ABC. “Nightline” has also produced numerous original documentaries available on ABC News’ digital platforms and Hulu.

WEEK OF Sept. 22, 2025:

Source: Nielsen, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 National Live + Same Day Big Data Plus Panel Program Ratings.  Current Week (w/o 9/22/25), Previous Week (w/o 9/15/25) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 9/16/24).  Beginning 12/26/22, averages are based on Big Data Plus Panel ratings. Beginning 8/31/20, national ratings also include Out of Home (OOH) viewing.  Averages based on regular telecasts.

*COPYRIGHT ©2025 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.

ABC News Media Relations
Sydney Wolfish
sydney.wolfish@abc.com