ABC News Weekly Ratings Release: January 20 - 24, 2020

ABC News’ “World News Tonight with David Muir” stood as the evening’s No. 1 newscast for the 6th week in a row in all key target demos: Total Viewers (9.101 million), Adults 25-54 (1.745 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.187 million) for the week of Jan. 20, 2020, based on Live + Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. “World News Tonight” outperformed “NBC Nightly News” (7.907 million, 1.654 million and 1.162 million, respectively) by 1.194 million Total Viewers, 91,000 Adults 25-54 and 25,000 Adults 18-49. In fact, “World News Tonight” outdelivered “NBC Nightly News” head-to-head on each of the five nights of the week by more than 1.0 million viewers for the first time in nearly 24 years – since w/o 4/15/96, based on regular telecasts. “World News Tonight” has led “NBC Nightly News” by more than 1.1 million viewers for the past three weeks.

On Monday, Jan. 20, and Tuesday, Jan. 21, anchor David Muir anchored from Washington, D.C., to report on the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

“World News Tonight” posted its largest overall viewer win over the NBC program in 5 months – since w/o 8/12/19. “World News Tonight” substantially increased its Total Viewer advantage year to year (+65%; vs. 724,000), winning all 18 weeks of the season and the last 61 weeks overall. In addition, “World News Tonight”’s 6th consecutive win in Adults 25-54 represents its longest run in more than 5 years – since week of 9/22/14 through week of 10/27/14.

Season to date, “World News Tonight” (8.766 million) ranks No. 1 in Total Viewers at this point of the season for the 3rd consecutive year, based on Most Current Data. In fact, “World News Tonight” is more than doubling its lead over “NBC Nightly News” (7.964 million) from last season (+104% – 802,000 vs. 394,000) to its largest season lead in 24 years—since the 1995-1996 season. “World News Tonight” is beating “CBS Evening News” (5.636 million) by 3.130 million, posting its biggest Total Viewer season advantage in at least 28 years (since at least the start of Nielsen electronic database in the 1991-1992 season).

In addition, “World News Tonight” is No. 1 for the season in Adults 25-54, leading NBC by its largest news demo margin (+30,000 – 1.711 million vs. 1.681 million) in 24 years and taking the top spot for the first time at this point of a season in 12 years—since the 1995-1996 and the 2007-2008 seasons, respectively. “World News Tonight” is also slashing its season margin with NBC in Adults 18-49 (-77% – 14,000 vs. 60,000), seeing its closest gap in 24 years—since the 1995-1996 season.

“World News Tonight” is No. 1 in both Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 season to date for the first time in 24 years—since the 1995-1996 season.

For the week, “World News Tonight” (9.101 million, 1.745 million and 1.187 million, respectively) beat “CBS Evening News” (5.912 million, 1.078 million and 785,000, respectively) in Total Viewers (+3.189 million), Adults 25-54 (+667,000) and Adults 18-49 (+402,000).

ABC “World News Tonight with David Muir” airs 6:30-7:00 p.m. EST on ABC. Almin Karamehmedovic is the executive producer of the broadcast.

EVENING NEWS (Week of Jan. 20, 2020):

Net         VIEWERS       A25-54       A18-49       HOUSEHOLDS
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ABC        9,101,000        1.4          0.9           6.0
NBC        7,907,000        1.4          0.9           5.1
CBS        5,912,000        0.9          0.6           3.8

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 1/20/20), Previous Week (w/o 1/13/20) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 1/21/19). Most Current: 2019-2020 Season (9/23/19-1/26/20) and 2018-2019 Season (9/24/18-1/27/19). Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. Averages based on regular telecasts.