"World News Tonight" Improves Week-to-Week and Quarter-to-Quarter Across All Key Measures

Week of March 21, 2016

ABC News’ “World News Tonight with David Muir” averaged 8.168 million Total Viewers, 1.820 million Adults 25-54 and 1.280 million Adults 18-49 for the week of March 21, 2016, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research.

“World News Tonight” improved week-to-week (7.985 million, 1.728 million and 1.225 million, respectively, w/o 3/14/16) in all key target demos: Total Viewers (+2%), Adults 25-54 (+5%) and Adults 18-49 (+4%).

David Muir anchored from Havana on Sunday and Monday and had two exclusive interviews with President Barack Obama during the first visit to Cuba by a United States President in 88 years. On Wednesday and Thursday, he anchored from Brussels to cover the terrorist attacks.

Season to date, “World News Tonight” is narrowing its Total Viewer season margin with “NBC Nightly News” in half (-50% - 260,000 vs. 519,000), posting its closest overall viewer performance with the NBC program in 8 years – since the 2007-08 season.

For the week, “World News Tonight” defeated the “CBS Evening News” by 1.113 million Total Viewers, by 179,000 Adults 25-54 and by 135,000 Adults 18-49.

NOTE: “CBS Evening News” aired with low coverage and was broken out on Thu (3/24/16 – 76%) and Fri (3/25/16 – 77%) due to NCAA Basketball and was retitled “CBS-Evening-Nws;” ratings for both days are excluded from the averages.  In addition, due to Good Friday (3/25/16), “NBC Nightly News” was coded as a special and the telecast is excluded from the weekly averages.  “CBS Evening News” averages are based on 3 days (Mon-Wed), while “Nightly News” is based on 4 days (Mon-Thurs).

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1st Quarter 2016 

ABC News “World News Tonight with David Muir” averaged 9.067 million Total Viewers, 2.070 million Adults 25-54 and 1.471 million Adults 18-49 during the 1st Quarter 2016, based on Most Current Data from Nielsen Media Research. “World News Tonight” scored across-the-board gains from the previous quarter (8.532 million, 1.967 million and 1.328 million, respectively, for 4Q15): Total Viewers (+6%), Adults 25-54 (+5%) and Adults 18-49 (+11%).

“World News Tonight” cut its Total Viewer margin with “NBC Nightly News” from the year-ago quarter (-60% - 165,000 vs. 409,000), marking its closest first quarter performance with the NBC newscast in 9 years – since 1Q07.

“World News Tonight” decreased its quarter-to-quarter gap with “NBC Nightly News” Total Viewers (-54% - 165,000 vs. 357,000) and Adults 18-49 (-15% - 188,000 vs. 220,000).

For the quarter, “World News” beat the “CBS Evening News” by 1.329 million Total Viewers, by 200,000 Adults 25-54 and by 222,000 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 3/21/16, 3/14/16 and 3/23/15.  Most Current: 2015-2016 Season (9/21/15 – 3/28/16) and 2014-2015 Season (9/22/14 – 3/29/15).   Most Current - 1Q16: 12/27/15 – 3/27/16, 1Q14: 12/29/14 – 3/29/15. 4Q15: 9/21 – 12/27/15. Averages based on regular telecasts.

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