As is usually the case, the final night of the year was also one of the biggest TV viewing nights of 2025 —and also per usual, the largest share of that viewing came on ABC.
The network’s annual Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve special averaged 18.8 million viewers in the 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. ET hour on Dec. 31/Jan. 1, according to early Nielsen ratings (which don’t include the measurement service’s big data component). That’s a four-year high and a 5 percent improvement on the previous year’s average of 17.92 million, pending updates. ABC estimates that 30 million people were tuned to the network at midnight ET, and the full night of festivities had some 34 million people watching at least a few minutes of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve (the latter figure doesn’t include out of home viewing).
The 18.8 million viewers for ABC made up a large majority of viewers in the hour surrounding the start of the year on the East Coast. New Year’s Eve Live drew 5.3 million viewers on CBS from 11:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., while specials on CNN and NBC came in behind that. Hourly totals for the latter two weren’t available at publication time, but CNN averaged 2.6 million viewers from 8 p.m.-12:30 a.m. for its New Year’s Eve special hosted Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen. NBC had 2.13 million viewers from 10:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m. for A Toast to 2025; both shows likely came in significantly higher in their final hours.
ABC also dominated primetime — drawing 7.03 million viewers from 8-10 p.m. and 10.59 million from 10:30-11:30 p.m. — and the late-late night segment (8.25 million from 12:30-2 a.m.), based on the early Nielsen figures. All four parts of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve grew year to year, with the 12:30 a.m. portion scoring an 85 percent gain.
CBS averaged 3.9 million viewers from 8-10 p.m. and 4.88 million from 10:30-11:30; the network’s primetime and late-night segments all declined year to year. CNN’s full night improved by 38 percent from 2024. NBC sat out the late night New Year’s Eve game last year.
Final ratings for New Year’s Eve programming will be added to this story as they become available.
New Year’s Rockin’ Eve is produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Corporation,The Hollywood Reporter’sparent company, in a subsidiary joint venture between Penske Media and Eldridge.