"World News Tonight with David Muir" Surges to #1 in Adults 25-54 for the Season

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Season to date, ABC News’ “World News Tonight” stands as the No. 1 evening newscast in Adults 25-54, leading “NBC Nightly News” by 1,000 news demo viewers (2.113 million vs. 2.112 million).  This marks the first time in 19 years that “World News Tonight” ranks as the top evening newscast in Adults 25-54 at this point of the season – since the 1995-96 season.  

“World News Tonight with David Muir” scored an across-the-board win in all key target demos: Total Viewers (7.945 million), Adults 25-54 (1.974 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.389 million) for the week of June 1, 2015, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research.  “World News Tonight” beat NBC’s “Nightly News” (7.751 million, 1.812 million and 1.302 million, respectively) by 194,000 Total Viewers, by 162,000 Adults 25-54 and by 87,000 Adults 18-49, delivering its widest margins since April – since weeks of 4/6/15, 4/20/15 and 4/20/15, respectively.   

“World News Tonight” improved on the same week last year (7.200 million, 1.866 million and 1.324 million, respectively, on w/o 6/2/14) also in all three key target demos: Total Viewers (+10%), Adults 25-54 (+6%), Adults 18-49 (+5%).  World News Tonight” was up the most year to year in both key adult demos as the “CBS Evening News” (flat/+3%) was mixed, while “NBC Nightly News” (-3%/-6%) was down.

For the 2nd week in a row, “World News Tonight” built on its prior week’s performance (7.650 million, 1.880 million and 1.264 million, respectively, for w/o 5/25/15) across all key target demos: Total Viewers (+4%), Adults 25-54 (+5%) and Adults 18-49 (+10%), hitting 6-week highs – since w/o 4/20/15.  In fact, World News Tonight” turned in the largest week-to-week increases in each of the three measures compared to “CBS Evening News” (+3%/-3%/-2%) and “NBC Nightly News” (+1%/+3%/-1%).

“World News Tonight” is averaging 481,000 more viewers, season to date, compared to the same time frame last season (8.543 million vs. 8.062 million), while “NBC Nightly News” is posting a 300,000 average loss (8.910 million vs. 9.210 million).  For the 2nd year in a row, “World News Tonight” is improving versus the same point last season in both Total Viewers (+6%) and Adults 25-54 (+1%).  “World News Tonight” is averaging its largest overall viewer audience in 8 years and strongest in the key adult news demo in 4 years – since the 2006-07 and the 2010-11 seasons, respectively.  In addition, “World News Tonight” is improving the most in Total Viewers and standing as the only evening newscast to grow in Adults 25-54 compared to “CBS Evening News” (+2%/-3%) and “NBC Nightly News” (-3%/-8%). 

“World News Tonight” cut its season gaps with “NBC Nightly News” by more than half in Total Viewers (-68% - 367,000 vs. 1.148 million) and Adults 18-49 (-66% - 87,000 vs. 258,000) to its closest performances in 7 years in both measures  – since the 2007-08 season.

For the week, “World News Tonight” outperformed the “CBS Evening News” by 1.333 million Total Viewers, by 575,000 Adults 25-54 and by 410,000 Adults 18-49, turning in its largest leads in both key adult demos in 10 weeks – since w/o 3/23/15.

NOTE: Due to the NBA Finals Game 1 on Thursday (6/4/15), “World News” was retitled “Wrld News Tonite” and is excluded from the averages. In addition, due to NHL Finals Game 1 on Wednesday, “Nightly News” was retitled “Nitely News” and is excluded from the averages. ABC’s (Mon - Wed and Fri) and NBC’s (Mon - Tue and Thurs - Fri) weekly averages are based on four days, while CBS’ weekly averages are based on five 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 June 1, 2015)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD weeks of 6/1/15, 5/25/15 and 6/2/14.  Most Current: 2014-2015 Season (9/22/14 – 6/7/15) and 2013-2014 Season (9/23/13 – 6/8/14).  Averages based on regular telecasts.