The three newscasts registered no viewership gains in total viewers following the Labor Day holiday weekend. However, in the prized Adults 25-54 demo, CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil was the only one to record a viewership increase.

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, which remained the most-watched broadcast in total viewers, also regained its No. 1 status in the Adults 25-54 demo for the week of September 7. ABC News’ evening telecast improved on its previous week’s performance, finishing with 100,000 more demo viewers than NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas.

Note: The weekly averages of ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News are based on different periods: ABC News’ and NBC News’ averages are based on two days (Tuesday and Thursday), while CBS News’ was based on four days (Monday-Thursday). On Monday (09/07/206), WNT and NBC Nightly News were coded as specials. On Wednesday (09/09/26) and Friday (09/11/26), WNT was retitled to WNT-ABC, and NBC Nightly News was retitled to NBC Nitely News. Friday’s edition of CBS Evening News was retitled to CBS Evening Nws. These broadcasts were excluded from the weekly and season averages.

According to Nielsen’s national live+same-day big data plus program ratings, ABC World News Tonight averaged 8.02 million total viewers and 1.106 million Adults 25-54 demo viewers for the week of September 7. The evening newscast was down -6% among total viewers and remained flat among A25-54 viewers compared to the previous week. During the same week in 2025* (the week beginning September 8), WNT was up +12% in total viewers and +10% in the demo.

NBC Nightly News occupied second place in total viewers and the demo, averaging 6.472 million and 1.006 million viewers, respectively. Compared with the previous week, Nightly News dropped by -7% in total viewers and -9% in the demo. When comparing its performance to the same week a year ago, Nightly News was up by +14% in total viewers and +31% in the demo.

CBS Evening News closed out the week of September 7 with 3.893 million total viewers and 556,000 demo viewers. CBS News’ newscast was down by -4% in total viewers but had gains of +2% in the demo compared to the previous week—the only newscast with gains in one of the measured categories. Its year-ago week numbers showed CBS Evening News up +1% in total viewers, but it slid by -3% in the demo.

*Please note that year-over-year comparisons are based on Nielsen Big Data+Panel (2026) vs. Panel (2025) measurements.

September 7, 2026 (Nielsen Big Data + Panel):

Source: Nielsen Big Data + Panel, L+SD, Week of 9/7/2026. Season to date: Most Current Data Stream: 2025-2026 Season (9/22/25 – 9/13/26) and 2024-2025 Season (9/23/24 – 9/14/25). Average audience based on regularly titled telecasts only.