'World News Tonight with David Muir' Is the #1 Newscast in America Winning Total Viewers for the Week
— --
ABC News’ “World News Tonight with David Muir” ranked as the week’s No. 1 evening newscast in Total Viewers (7.928 million) for the week of May 16, 2016, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. “World News Tonight” outdelivered “NBC Nightly News” (7.830 million) by 98,000, its largest advantage in nearly 5 months – since w/o 12/28/15.
In fact, “World News Tonight” outperformed “NBC Nightly News” in 4 of 5 head-to-head telecasts during the week: Tuesday (+103,000), Wednesday (+25,000), Thursday (+557,000) and Friday (+225,000). Further, “World News Tonight’s” Thursday lead was its largest single-day advantage since December – since 12/29/15, based on regular telecasts. “World News Tonight” reported on the EgyptAir plane crash on Thursday and Friday.
“World News Tonight” scored across-the-board increases over the previous week (7.761 million, 1.661 million and 1.179 million, respectively, w/o 5/9/16) in Total Viewers (+2%), Adults 25-54 (+3%) and Adults 18-49 (+5%). “World News Tonight” stood as the only evening newscast to grow from the previous week in any demo as both the “CBS Evening News” (-1%/-2%/-3%, respectively) and “NBC Nightly News” (-2%/-2%/-2%, respectively) turned in losses in all key target measures.
“World News Tonight” saw gains on the year-earlier week (7.541 million and 1.203 million, respectively, on w/o 5/18/15) in Total Viewers (+5%) and Adults 18-49 (+2%), posting year-to-year Total Viewer growth for the 4th consecutive week. In addition, “World News Tonight” grew the most year-to-year in Total Viewers compared to “NBC Nightly News” (+3%) and “CBS Evening News” (-3%).
“World News Tonight” cut its week-to-week margins with “NBC Nightly News” by double digits in Adults 25-54 (-33% - 145,000 vs. 218,000) and Adults 18-49 (-60% – 56,000 vs. 141,000) to deliver its closest performances in both adult demos in 11 weeks – since w/o 2/29/16.
Season to date, “World News Tonight” is improving versus the same point last season in Total Viewers (+20,000 - 8.598 million vs. 8.578 million). Growing for the 4th straight year, “World News Tonight” is delivering its largest overall viewer audience in 9 years – since the 2006-07 season.
“World News Tonight” is also narrowing its Total Viewer season margin with “NBC Nightly News” by double digits (-34% - 255,000 vs. 387,000) for the 2nd straight season, posting its closest overall viewer performance with the NBC program in 8 years – since the 2007-08 season.
For the week, “World News Tonight” led the “CBS Evening News” by 1.209 million Total Viewers, by 202,000 Adults 25-54 and by 201,000 Adults 18-49.
ABC “World News Tonight with David Muir” airs 6:30–7:00 p.m. EST on the ABC Television Network. Almin Karamehmedovic is the executive producer of the broadcast.
Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD weeks of 5/16/16, 5/9/16 and 5/18/15. Most Current: 2015-2016 Season (9/21/15 – 5/22/16) and 2014-2015 Season (9/22/14 – 5/24/15). Averages based on regular telecasts.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DavidMuirABC and www.facebook.com/WorldNewsTonight
Twitter: @DavidMuir and @ABCWorldNews