"World News Tonight" Ranks #1 Among Adults 25-54 for 5th Consecutive Week and in 9 of Past 10 Weeks

"World News Tonight" Delivers its Longest Winning Streak Among Adults 25-54 in Nearly 7 Years

"World News Tonight" Gains in Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Compared to Last Year and Last Week

ABC's " World News Tonight with David Muir" premiered as the No. 1 evening newscast in Adults 25-54 (2.040 million) during the week of September 1, 2014, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. In fact, ABC has won in the key adult news demo for the 5th consecutive week to deliver its winning longest streak in nearly 7 years - since w/o 10/1/07 thru w/o 10/29/07. In addition, ABC has taken the top spot in Adults 25-54 for the 9th time in the last 10 weeks and in 15 of the last 22. "World News Tonight" outperformed NBC "Nightly News" (1.967 million) by 73,000 news demo viewers.

"World News Tonight" built on the prior week's performance (7.383 million and 1.942 million, respectively, for w/o 8/25/14) for the 2nd week running in both Total Viewers (+12%) and Adults 25-54 (+5%) to deliver its largest overall audience since March and best news demo performance since May - since w/o 3/24/14 and w/o 5/12/14, respectively.

"World News Tonight" improved year to year for the 4th week in a row in Total Viewers (+8%), Adults 25-54 (+10%) and Adults 18-49 (+1%) - 7.624 million, 1.856 million and 1.320 million, respectively, on w/o 9/2/13.

Season to date, "World News" is up versus the same point last season in both Total Viewers (+4%) and Adults 25-54 (+5%), delivering its most-watched season in 6 years and best news demo number in 3 years - since the 2007-08 and the 2010-11 seasons, respectively. "World News" also stands as the only evening newscast to improve on its news demo performance from the previous season compared to "CBS Evening News" (-4%) and "NBC Nightly News" (-3%).

In addition, "World News" is narrowing its season margin with "NBC Nightly News" in Adults 25-54 by more than half (-60% - 111,000 vs. 279,000) compared to its season margin from the same point last year. In fact, cutting its Adults 25-54 gap by double digits for the 3rd consecutive season, "World News" is seeing its closest news demo performance with the NBC program in 6 years - since the 2007-08 season.

"World News" has significantly increased its Adults 25-54 season lead over "CBS Evening News" versus its year-ago season lead (+76% - 413,000 vs. 235,000).

For the week, "World News Tonight" out-delivered the "CBS Evening News" by 1.768 million Total Viewers, 427,000 Adults 25-54 and 231,000 Adults 18-49. In fact, "World News Tonight" saw its largest Total Viewer lead over the CBS program in 1 year - since w/o 9/9/13.

NOTE: On Monday (9/1/14), "World News Tonight" "Nightly News" and "Evening News" were coded specials and are excluded from the averages. "Nightly News" was retitled to "NBC Nitely News" on Thursday for NFL, while "Evening News" was retitled "CBS Evening Nws" on Friday due to the U.S. Open. Each telecast was excluded from the averages. ABC's averages are based on 4 days (Tue-Fri), while NBC's (Tues, Wed and Fri) and CBS' (Tue-Thur) weekly averages are based on 3 days.

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.

EVENING NEWS (Week of September 1, 2014)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD weeks of 9/1/14, 8/25/14 and 9/2/13. Most Current: 2013-2014 Season (9/23/13 - 9/7/14) and 2012-2013 Season (9/24/12 - 9/8/13). Averages based on regular telecasts.

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