“World News Tonight with David Muir” finished the week of March 30, 2026, as the most watched program on all of broadcast and cable, excluding sports, averaging 8.598 million total viewers. said the 6:30-7:00 p.m. ET newscast beat NBC by 1.9 million viewers and more than doubled CBS by 4.5 million viewers.
The rating gives ABC another clean win in the nightly news battle at a moment when the network says “World News Tonight” is earning its fifth consecutive News & Documentary Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Live News Program. The broadcast was also the No. 1 newscast in total viewers for the 10th year straight and No. 1 in adults 25-54 for the 7th season in a row.
said the show is delivering its largest season audience in three years, a sign that its dominance has not been limited to one strong week. That matters because evening newscasts live on momentum as much as on one-off events: the network that keeps its viewers through ordinary nights can protect its lead when the news cycle turns rough.
The weekly average, though, was built on a shortened sample. “World News Tonight” was preempted on April 1, 2026, then retitled “WNT-ABC” on April 2 and April 3, and those retitled telecasts were excluded from the weekly and season averages. CBS Evening News was retitled “CBS Evening Nws” on April 3, while NBC Nightly News became “NBC Nitely News” that day, and those versions were also left out of the totals.
That leaves ABC with a headline number that is real, but narrower than it first appears. Even so, the result still points to the same conclusion: when the week was counted, David Muir’s newscast was far enough ahead to remain the clear leader, and ABC’s evening audience remains the one the others are still chasing.
