‘Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve’ has its best ratings in four years
ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest” again bested the ball-dropping competition, averaging 18.8 million viewers during its key time slot of 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. according to Nielsen ratings — up from last year’s 17.9 million viewers.
That once again made “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” produced by Dick Clark Prods., New Year’s Eve’s No. 1 entertainment broadcast special. The broadcast peaked at midnight, when more than 30 million viewers tuned in to ring in the new year as the ball dropped in Times Square. That was an increase compared to the 29 million viewers last year.
According to ABC’s table of Nielsen data, “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” beat CBS’ “New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash” by +255% and also beat CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live” by an undisclosed amount.
All told, this year’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” lasted almost eight hours – the longest in franchise history, since its launch in 1971 and 1972. The 2025 to 2026 marathon started at 8:00 PM ET and ended at 4:00 AM ET.
The event, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Rita Ora of New York’s Times Square, featured 42 artists from New York, Las Vegas, Chicago, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. The show ended with a huge fireworks display along the Las Vegas Strip.
The event was also broadcast live on over iHeartRadio stations across the country, said to have reached 2 million P6+ listeners on Wednesday – a +9% increase from last year.
According to Talkwalker Social Content Ratings, “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2026” was the No. 1 primetime program on all of TV in terms of total interactions and video views on New Year’s Eve. Also, according to Listen First, Busta Rhymes’ performance of “Look At Me Now” as part of DJ Cassidy’s Pass The Mic Live! was the #1 most viewed clip of the day on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
Highlights of the show included Diana Ross singing ‘I’m Coming Out’, ‘The Boss’, ‘Upside Down’, ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ and ‘Tomorrow’. Other guests included Ciara, Little Big Town, Maren Morris and LE SSERAFIM.
The entire event averaged 34 million viewers throughout the night, with outside ratings still to come.
Variety parent company PMC owns Dick Clark Prods. in a joint venture with Eldridge.
