‘Dick Clark’s New Years Rockin’ Eve’ Scores Best Ratings In 4 Years

ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest” once again bested the ball-dropping competition, averaging 18.8 million viewers during its key 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. time slot according to Nielsen ratings — up from last year‘s 17.9 million viewers.

That made “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” produced by Dick Clark Prods., again the No. 1 entertainment broadcast special of New Years Eve. The telecast peaked at midnight, when more than 30 million viewers tuned in to usher in the New Year as the ball dropped in Times Square. That was up from 29 million viewers last year.

According to ABC’s tabulation 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 CNN’s “New Year’s Eve Live” by an undisclosed amount.

All told, this year’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” ran for nearly eight hours — the longest in franchise history, since it launched as 1971 turned into 1972. The 2025-into-2026 marathon began at 8 p.m. ET and ended at 4 a.m. ET.

The event, hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Rita Ora from New York’s Times Square, featured 42 performers across New York, Las Vegas, Chicago, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. The show ended with a massive fireworks display along the Las Vegas strip.

The event also aired live across more than iHeartRadio stations nationwide, which it said reached 2 million listeners P6+ 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” primetime was the the No. 1 program across all of TV in total interactions and video views on New Year’s Eve. Also, per Listen First, Busta Rhymes’ performance of “Look At Me Now” as part of DJ Cassidy’s Pass The Mic Live! was the No. 1most watched clip across TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook for the day.

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 full event reached an average of 34 Million total viewers across the night, with out of home viewership dara still to come.

Variety parent company PMC owns Dick Clark Prods. in a joint venture with Eldridge.