A new SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus poll finds that when U.S. adults are asked which of nine specific news or opinion programs they watched, read, or listened to in the last week, the evening news programs on the three original television networks top the list:

ABC World News Tonight (watched by 23%), CBS Evening News (20%), and NBC Nightly News (19%). The next most watched/listened to programs are The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (11%), Hannity on Fox News (10%), and All Things Considered on NPR (10%).

The new poll also finds that when asked to choose among 18 options, U.S. adults most often cite social media or podcasts (17%), online news, news aggregators, or newsletters (12%), their local TV news or newspapers (11%), and Fox News (10%) as their main source of news.

The public’s viewership of specific news or opinion programs and their reported main source of news vary considerably by party identification and age.

These findings are part of an SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus poll conducted September 5 – 8, 2025, among a nationally representative sample of 1,030 adults aged 18 and older.

Which Specific News or Opinion Programs Have U.S. Adults Watched, Read, or Listened to in the Last Week?

 A new SSRS poll finds that when U.S. adults are asked which of nine specific news or opinion programs they watched, read, or listened to in the last week, the evening news programs on the three original television networks top the list: ABC World News Tonight (watched by 23%), CBS Evening News (20%), and NBC Nightly News (19%). The next most watched/listened to programs are The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (11%), Hannity on Fox News (10%), and All Things Considered on NPR (10%).

More than four in ten U.S. adults (44%) reported that they did not watch/listen to any of the shows.

news and opinion programs u.s. adults have watched read or listened to in the last week by party id

The public’s reported viewership of specific news or opinion programs varies considerably by party identification and age.

Differences by Party Identification

The evening news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC are among the top four most watched/listened to programs for all three partisan groups, although in slightly different order. But the top program among Republicans is Hannity on Fox News (23%) and number five is The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (16%).

The fourth and fifth most watched/listened to programs among Democrats (after the three network evening news programs) are All Things Considered on NPR (19%) and The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC (12%).

Differences by Age

The most striking difference in viewership of the nine news or opinion programs is the proportion of younger adults who watched/listened to none of the programs during the last week. More than half of adults aged 18-49 (53%) reported that they did not watch/listen to any of the programs, compared to 26% of those aged 65 or over.

Viewership of the ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs is significantly higher among adults aged 50 or over than those aged 18-49: for ABC World News Tonight, 31% among those 50 or over vs. 16% for 18-49-year-olds; for CBS Evening News, 25% to 15%; for NBC Nightly News, 25% to 13%. The same is true for Hannity, viewed by 15% of those aged 50 or over, 6% of 18-49-year-olds.

Conversely, a higher proportion of 18-49-year-olds (15%) than those 50 or over (7%) report listening to The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

news and opinion programs u.s. adults have watched read or listened to in the last week by age

What Do U.S. Adults Say Is Their MAIN Source of News?

The new SSRS poll also finds that when asked to choose among 18 options, U.S. adults cite social media or podcasts (17%), online news, news aggregators, or newsletters (12%), their local TV news or newspapers (11%), and Fox News (10%) as their main source of news.

the publics main source of news by party id

Differences by Party Identification

The top three sources overall also appear among the four most-cited news sources for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. But beyond that, the main source of news varies considerably by party identification. Among Republicans, the top source is Fox News (21%), cited by only 3% among Democrats and 6% of Independents. One in seven Independents (14%) report that none of the 18 sources on the list are their main source (compared to 7% of Republicans and 6% of Democrats).

Partisan differences also appear for sources further down the overall list. Republicans (6%) are more likely than Democrats or Independents to choose conservative media as the main sources of news. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to choose NPR or PBS (9% to 2%), CNN (8% to 2%), CBS News (6% to 2%), and The New York Times (5% to 1%).

Differences by Age

Reliance on social media or podcasts as their main source of news is much higher among younger than older adults. Nearly one-third of 18-29-year-olds (31%) and about one in five 30-49-year-olds (21%) report that social media or podcasts are their main source, compared with only 10% of adults aged 50-64 and 4% of those aged 65 or over. Younger adults are also more likely to report that none of the 18 choices are their main source of news: 14% of 18-49-year-olds, 4% of those aged 50 or over.

Unlike other age groups, adults aged 65 or over cite Fox News (17%) and ABC News (13%) as their top two sources.

the publics main source of news by age

Methodology

Interviews for this study were conducted on the SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus on September 5 – 8, 2025, among a nationally representative sample of 1,030 respondents aged 18 and older. The margin of error for total respondents is +/-3.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The design effect is 1.27.

The SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus is a multi-client, probability-based survey that fields twice a month. It delivers a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults aged 18 or older in English (with Spanish language option). Data collection is conducted online and via phone (for non-internet and web-reluctant respondents) using the probability-based SSRS Opinion Panel.

All SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus data are weighted to represent the target population of U.S. adults ages 18 or older. View the questions used for this analysis, along with the responses (topline) >>

The SSRS Opinion Panel Omnibus is conducted on the SSRS Opinion Panel. SSRS Opinion Panel members are recruited randomly based on a nationally representative ABS (Address Based Sample) design (including Hawaii and Alaska). ABS respondents are randomly sampled by Marketing Systems Group (MSG) through the U.S. Postal Service’s Computerized Delivery Sequence File (CDS), a regularly updated listing of all known addresses in the U.S. For the SSRS Opinion Panel, known business addresses are excluded from the sample frame.

The SSRS Opinion Panel is a multi-mode panel (web and phone). Most panelists take self-administered web surveys; however, the option to take surveys conducted by a live telephone interviewer is available to those who do not use the internet as well as those who use the internet but are reluctant to take surveys online. All sample drawn for this study were SSRS Opinion Panelists who are U.S. adults ages 18 or older. Sample was selected to ensure representation by age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, Census region, and party identification. Possible sources of non-sampling error include non-response bias, as well as question wording and ordering effects.