Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve Sees 35% Increase with 30 Million Viewers at Midnight
The annual celebration attracted 30 million viewers at midnight ET on ABC, marking a 35.1% increase from the previous year’s audience of 22.2 million and achieving a four-year high.
According to early Nielsen data, the late-night segment of the show from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. averaged 18.8 million viewers, a slight improvement compared to 2025. It is important to note that out-of-home viewing data is not included in these early reports, suggesting this number may rise.
In primetime, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve dominated the broadcast landscape between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. with 7.03 million viewers, up 12% from last year.
As anticipated, viewership increased as the evening progressed, reaching 10.59 million from 10:30 to 11:30 p.m. ET. This second segment of the primetime special saw a slight uptick from 2025’s 9.31 million.
While viewership began to decline later in the evening, a substantial audience remained until nearly 2 a.m. ABC’s late-late-night special garnered 8.25 million viewers from 12:30 a.m. to 1:51 a.m., nearly doubling last year’s 4.45 million and achieving an eight-year high.
