ABC News Weekly Ratings Release: Sept. 30 - Oct. 6, 2019

ABC News’ “World News Tonight with David Muir” stood as the evening’s No. 1 newscast in Total Viewers (8.242 million) and Adults 25-54 (1.599 million) for the week of Sept. 30, 2019, based on Live + Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. “World News Tonight” led “NBC Nightly News” (7.409 million and 1.556 million, respectively) by 833,000 Total Viewers and by 43,000 Adults 25-54. “World News Tonight” increased its Total Viewer winning advantage over the NBC program both week to week (+22%; vs. 682,000 on w/o 9/23/19) and year to year (+46%; vs. 572,000 for w/o 10/1/18).

“World News Tonight” stood as the only evening newscast to post increases year to year (w/o 10/1/18) in any demo: Total Viewer (+94,000/+1% – 8.242 million vs. 8.148 million), Adults 25-54 (+37,000/+2% – 1.599 million vs. 1.562 million) and Adults 18-49 (+35,000/+3% – 1.066 million vs. 1.031 million).

“World News Tonight” improved on the previous week (w/o 9/23/19) in Total Viewers (+281,000/+4% – 8.242 million vs. 7.961 million) and Adults 25-54 (+77,000/+5% – 1.599 million vs. 1.522 million), posting its strongest news demo performance in over 3 months – since w/o 6/3/19.

Two weeks into the season, “World News Tonight” (8.147 million) ranks No. 1 in Total Viewers at this point of the season for the 4th consecutive year. In fact, “World News Tonight” is increasing its lead over “NBC Nightly News” (7.392 million) from last season by 28% (755,000 vs. 589,000) to its largest season lead in 24 years – since the 1995-1996 season. “World News Tonight” leads CBS Evening News” (5.148 million) by 2.999 million, posting its biggest Total Viewer advantage in at least 28 years (since at least the start of Nielsen electronic database in 1991-1992 season).

In addition, “World News Tonight” is cutting its season margins with NBC by more than half in both Adults 25-54 (-92% – 12,000 vs. 154,000) and Adults 18-49 (-77% – 37,000 vs. 161,000), seeing its smallest Adults 25-54 gap in 5 years and its closest Adults 18-49 margin in 12 years — since the 2014-2015 and the 2007-2008 seasons, respectively. For the week, “World News Tonight” (8.242 million, 1.599 million and 1.066 million, respectively) beat “CBS Evening News” (5.203 million, 941,000 and 663,000, respectively) by 3.039 million Total Viewers, by 658,000 Adults 25-54 and 403,000 Adults 18-49.

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

EVENING NEWS (Week of Sept. 30, 2019):

ABC NEWS:  8.242 million viewers, 0.8 rating in A18-49, 1.3 rating in A25-54
NBC NEWS:  7.409 million viewers, 0.9 rating in A18-49, 1.3 rating in A25-54
CBS NEWS:   5.203 million viewers, 0.5 rating in A18-49, 0.8 rating in A25-54

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD weeks of 9/30/19, 9/23/19 and 10/1/18. Most Current: 2019–2020 Season (9/23 – 10/6/19) and 2018–2019 Season (9/24 – 10/7/18). ABC and NBC ratings include broadcasts that air later on some stations. Averages based on regular telecasts.