New Year’s Eve Ratings: ABC Still Tops, But CNN Chips Away at Lead

ABC, Ryan Seacrest, and the ghost of Dick Clark contniued to rule the roost on late-night TV this New Year’s Eve, with Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2026 drawing more total viewers than all of its major competitors combined, with an average audience of 19.5 million during the hour beginning at 11:30 p.m. ET.

According to Nielsen Live+Same Day ratings, the show peaked with 30.25 million viewers tuned in at the midnight minute.

It was an up year overall for New Year’s Eve programming, with all of the traditional major players posting year-over-year increases—save for CBS, whose Nashville-based countdown show, New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash, was down 24% among total viewers and 30% in the demo.

While ratings for ABC’s traditional Times Square countdown grew to a four-year high, CNN’s own Times Square coverage chipped away at its lead, with the final hour of New Year’s Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen growing by 33% overall and by 61% in the demo, where it jumped to a second-place finish over last year’s #2, CBS.

NBC, which scuttled its earlier plans for a live Snoop Dogg-hosted countdown special, still managed to grow its audience significantly. Compared to last year’s Day Drinking with Seth Meyers New Year’s Special, this year’s A Toast to 2025 with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager grew the network’s total audience for the time period by 58%. Among viewers in the demo, Kotb and Bush Hager saw the year’s greatest gains, up a whopping 66%.

Fox News Channel also saw healthy gains this New Year’s, with a mix of programming over the hour that featured the final half hour of All-American New Year’s Bash with host Jimmy Failla, the first 15 minutes of A New Year With Kat & Tyrus 2026, and live coverage from Washington, D.C., of the White House fireworks display. Overall, the news channel’s ratings were up 28% among total viewers, and 44% among viewers aged 18-49.

Ratings charts for the 11:30 p.m. ET hour follow below:

Live+Same Day Ratings – All Viewers (P2+)

Live+Same Day Ratings – In the Demo (P18-49)

Ratings data © The Nielsen Company, used under license.