"World News Tonight with David Muir" Wins Total Viewers with Largest Advantage Over NBC in Over 8 Years

ByABC News
January 6, 2016, 11:31 AM

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ABC News  World News Tonight with David Muir ranked as the weeks No. 1 evening newscast in Total Viewers (9.692 million) for the week of December 28, 2015, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research.  World News Tonight outdelivered NBC Nightly News (9.291 million) by its largest advantage (+401,000) in more than 8 years since w/o 10/22/07.

World News Tonight scored across-the-board increases on the same week last year (8.633 million, 2.216 million and 1.587 million, respectively, on w/o 12/29/14): Total Viewers (+12%), Adults 25-54 (+1%) and Adults 18-49 (+5%).

In addition, World News Tonight grew week-to-week (8.683 million, 1.887 million and 1.286 million, respectively, on w/o 12/21/15) by double digits in Total Viewers (+12%), Adults 25-54 (+19%) and Adults 18-49 (+27%).  Hitting a new season high in Total Viewers, World News Tonight saw its most-watched week in nearly 1 year since w/o 1/5/15.

World News Tonight slashed its week-to-week margins with NBC Nightly News in Adults 25-54 (-87% - 44,000 vs. 336,000) and Adults 18-49 (-88% - 33,000 vs. 275,000).

On Monday (12/28/15), World News Tonight turned in its top telecast in 10 months (since 2/23/15, 2/24/15 and 2/23/15, respectively) in all key target demos: Total Viewers (10.233 million), Adults 25-54 (2.565 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.843 million).  Further, World News Tonights Monday airing stood as the weeks most-watched telecast.

On Tuesday (12/29/15), World News Tonight outperformed NBC Nightly News by +895,000 Total Viewers (9.761 million vs. 8.866 million), its largest single-day advantage in nearly 7 months since 6/3/15, based on regular telecasts.

Season to date, World News Tonight is improving versus the same point last season in Total Viewers (+1% - 8.581 million vs. 8.510 million).  Growing for the 5th straight year, World News Tonight is delivering its largest overall viewer audience in 8 years  since the 2007-08 season.

In addition, World News Tonight is narrowing its Total Viewer season margin with NBC Nightly News by double digits (-48% - 326,000 vs. 633,000) for the 2nd season in a row, posting its closest overall viewer performance with the NBC program in 8 years  since the 2007-08 season.  

For the week, World News Tonight beat the CBS Evening News by 1.819 million Total Viewers, by 281,000 Adults 25-54 and by 319,000 Adults 18-49.

Note: With the New Years holiday (1/1/16), ABCs World News Tonight,  CBS Evening News and NBCs Nightly News were coded as specials on Thursday and Friday.  All specialed telecasts are excluded from the weekly averages.  ABCs, CBS and NBCs program averages are based on 3 days (Mon-Wed).

ABC World News Tonight with David Muir airs at 6:30 p.m., ET on the ABC Television Network.  Almin Karamehmedovic is the executive producer of the broadcast. Follow David Muir and the World News Tonight team online: @DavidMuir; @WNTonight; facebook.com/DavidMuirABC; facebook.com/WorldNewsTonight. 

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD weeks of 12/28/15, 12/21/15 and 12/29/14.  Most Current: 2015-2016 Season (9/21/15 1/3/16) and 2014-2015 Season (9/22/15 1/4/15).  Averages based on regular telecasts.