In a year marked by political volatility, global conflict, climate crises, and questions about democratic institutions, ABC News met the moment with clarity, urgency, and resolve. When the very nature of truth itself is being challenged every day – by those in power, and by ordinary citizens who themselves struggle to differentiate propaganda from proof, our mission remains constant: to report rigorously, question fearlessly, and highlight the human consequences behind the headlines.

For 70 years, ABC News has worked to earn the trust of - and connection with - our viewers. Connecting with them wherever they are in this changing media landscape, ABC News continues to reach more Americans than any other news organization, whether by World News Tonight with David Muir (the most-watched newscast in the U.S. in 2025); 20/20 (our award-winning primetime newsmagazine); or Good Morning America (in its 13th consecutive year of ranking #1 among morning news programs). Together, we reach more Americans than any other outlet…by far.

Exclusive Access and Accountability. In 2025, ABC News led with exclusive reporting at the highest levels, from Mary Bruce’s tough questions of President Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office, to Martha Raddatz’s timely interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv just after their drone attack on Russian assets. We elevated the voices of Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors with an exclusive group interview, ensuring their experiences were reported with clarity, sensitivity, and impact. Our teams covered the longest government shutdown in American history, amplifying the stories of families skipping meals, federal workers furloughed, and communities left in limbo. By highlighting those directly affected by powerful systems, ABC News demonstrated that journalism connecting policy and power to lived experience is journalism that matters.

On the Ground When it Matters Most. When disaster struck — from the inferno that engulfed Los Angeles to the devastating floods in Texas, anchors and correspondents provided immersive coverage combining urgent information with context on the climate forces reshaping our world. Our work in Los Angeles alongside KABC-TV demonstrated that with coordination, candor, and community, journalism can not only inform, but also directly serve the public in times of crisis. With our SoCal Strong initiative, every broadcast provided a way for viewers to donate and help residents rebuild their lives from insurance workshops for displaced families to food pantries. With both corporate and individual donors, 9.7 million dollars was raised. Those funds were then directed to vetted relief agencies providing both immediate assistance and long-term support.

Investigative Reporting with Impact. ABC News’s 2025 investigations drove measurable change. Reporting on cuts to a federal health program protecting coal miners led to the reinstatement of critical safeguards. A cross-platform investigation into the extremist online network known as 764 warned the nation and the world about how profoundly dangerous and widespread this threat truly is, drawing public praise from federal law enforcement leadership.

We Continue to Broaden Our Reach in the Digital Space. In 2025, we further expanded our ABC News Live streaming service. ABC News Live has seen truly remarkable growth, closing out 2025 with more than 620 million hours streamed, cementing its place as the #1 streaming news channel.

Prime with Linsey Davis, the #1 streaming newscast, just celebrated its 6th anniversary. The broadcast's great strength lies in their desire to delve deeper, lingering on stories that matter to our viewers. Unlike traditional newscasts that often devote a minute or two to a story, a Prime story is unconstrained and might be 10 or 12 minutes long.

Our digital teams developed social content that reached and engaged record audiences — particularly on TikTok. In December 2024, we had 9 million followers. By December 2025, that number grew to more than 14 million.

In 2025, ABC News demonstrated what a newsroom built for this moment can achieve. We respectfully submit the following selection of original content for your consideration for what we regard as the most important award in journalism: the 2026 Edward R. Murrow Overall Excellence Award. Each story represents journalism that informs, empowers, and serves the public in a year that demanded nothing less.

ABC NEWS DIGITAL

ABC NEWS EXPANSION ON TIKTOK ABC News brings breaking news, in-depth reporting, and cultural moments to life on TikTok, charting the path for news on the platform. There's a renowned appetite for news and politics and providing quick, critical breaking news and relevant information has helped us grow our follower count. Over the last year, our ABC News flagship social accounts generated nearly 14 billion video views across platforms, with more than 8 billion of those happening on TikTok. We're excited for even more continued growth and expansion in 2026. A key driver of that growth was our audience team leveraging our dedicated global correspondents for digital-first storytelling. Our field crews film pieces specifically for social media, bringing viewers directly to the frontlines of their coverage. In what were often pure on-the-go, cellphone-shot moments of raw journalism, we reimagined the polished style of traditional TV packages — delivering authentic, immediate reporting to our followers and strengthening the core partnership between our international reporters and in-house social media producers to better serve our global audience.

NEW STREAMING NEWS PROGRAM FOR A YOUNGER AUDIENCE - WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

What You Need to Know was created to give viewers a clear, reliable way to stay informed in a fast-moving world. The goal is simple: deliver the most important news of the day in less than ten minutes, using firsthand reporting, not commentary.

The editorial mission is reflected in the title: What You Need to Know. The show combines major breaking news with the cultural and viral moments people are talking about, so viewers understand both what matters and what’s shaping the conversation. We don’t talk about the news; we report it, so viewers leave informed and ready to share what they’ve learned.

The production team is based in New York, Washington, and London, allowing the program to draw on ABC News’ global reporting in real time. That structure makes it possible to respond quickly as stories change while still delivering a tightly produced, cohesive show. Each day, the editorial focus is to identify the most important stories from the U.S. and around the world and distill them into a clear, focused program.

Strong visuals, tight writing, and on-the-ground reporting come together to create a fast-paced, visually engaging program that delivers top stories and viral moments in a format that gives younger viewers all they need to know. The newscast can be seen on YouTube and Disney+ as well as all ABC News digital platforms.

ROBUST DATA JOURNALISM - HIGHBALLED REAL ESTATE

This revealing story grew out of ABC News analysis showing a pattern that was hard to ignore: homeowners in predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods across the country are often hit with higher property tax bills than owners of similarly valued homes in mostly white areas.

For many families, those higher assessments aren’t just a number on paper — they have consequences. When tax bills become out of reach, missing a payment can trigger a tax sale and cost an individual or family their home. As ABC’s Rachel Scott spent time with one Baltimore family who saw the assessed value of their house more than triple from the time they bought it to when they lost it at a tax sale. The full increase in market value went to the new owner, not to them.Across cities and suburbs, the pattern shows up again and again: in places where segregation is high, homeowners of color are more likely to be taxed unfairly because assessments don’t reflect actual market value.

By pairing data analysis with reporting on the ground, this story highlighted not just a disparity in numbers, but a growing crisis quietly stripping wealth from the people who can least afford to lose it.

LONG TERM REPORTING - REBUILDING AFTER THE LOS ANGELES FIRES

This digital original examines the stories of homeowners impacted by wildfires as they face an uncertain future amid an insurance crisis. ABC News investigates the lapses in insurance coverage in California, creating what experts call an “uninsurable future”, as victims of recent wildfires are left with the fallout.

ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING - LAST LANDS, IN COLLABORATION WITH GLOBAL CONSERVATION

ABC News Live’s Last Lands digital streaming series examines the human stories behind climate change’s last refuge: national parks. Parks in developing countries act as a last line of defense for forests, corals, and endangered animals, and our reporting team sought to expose how cartels and poachers endanger their very existence.

To successfully embed with teams in national parks around the world, ABC partnered with Global Conservation, the only international nonprofit organization focused on the direct protection of endangered national parks and Indigenous territories in developing countries.

In this feature, Woodruff travels deep into northern Guatemala, to the ancient city of El Mirador which once stood as a thriving Mayan metropolis nearly two thousand years ago. The story journeys into this lost world through the eyes of the park rangers risking their lives to protect both the rainforest and their heritage. Once inside the park, ABC News uncovered and documented clandestine drug-trafficking infrastructure hidden among ancient Mayan ruins.

Through deep-background interviews with Guatemalan officials and rangers, the team identified illegal airstrips used by cartels to move cocaine through protected land. After gaining access to a local helicopter and pilot, ABC News became the first broadcast outlet to visually document how traffickers are exploiting an archaeological site of global significance.