Tom Llamas, anchor of NBC Nightly News, is making significant gains in viewership, narrowing the gap with ABC's World News Tonight, anchored by David Muir. In June, Llamas averaged 936,000 viewers in the 25-to-54 demographic, a figure just 11,000 viewers shy of Muir's 947,000 viewers in the same demographic. This represents the narrowest margin between the two broadcasts in the key advertiser demographic since 2017.
Llamas, 47, took over NBC Nightly News in June 2025. Since then, the program has experienced ten consecutive months of year-over-year improvement. Season-to-date, the gap between the two programs is the narrowest in six years, marking a 50 percent improvement for NBC since Llamas replaced Lester Holt. Llamas has publicly stated his ambition to be number one in the ratings.
Despite Llamas's gains, sources at ABC News acknowledge internal unease, with one insider describing the situation as "NBC is dictating the game while ABC is playing defense." This sentiment is reportedly amplified by ABC's 'Good Morning America' also trailing NBC's 'Today' in viewership. However, an ABC News insider pushed back against claims that Muir is threatened, asserting that 'World News Tonight' remains the number one program on television and that ABC leads NBC by nearly two million viewers for the season.
Muir, 52, has anchored ABC's flagship nightly newscast since 2014, succeeding Diane Sawyer. The broadcast has maintained a similar total viewership to Sawyer's tenure over a decade ago, with an average of 8.2 million total viewers in the second quarter of 2026, compared to Llamas's 6.3 million for NBC Nightly News during the same period.
Llamas joined NBC in 2021 after seven years at ABC News, where he hosted the weekend edition of World News Tonight and served as a fill-in anchor for Muir. In addition to his role on NBC Nightly News, Llamas also hosts a streaming news show on NBC News NOW. The competitive dynamic between Muir and Llamas highlights ongoing shifts in the landscape of broadcast network news viewership.