For the First Time Ever, ‘World News Tonight With David Muir’ Defeats NBC Nightly News During Both Weeks of Olympics Across All Key Demos — Total Viewers, Adults 25–54 and Adults 18–49 — Dating Back to When Nielsen Began Keeping Records — ‘World News Tonight’ Is #1 Program on All of Television and Cable for the Week

For the first time in more than 30 years, “World News Tonight with David Muir” ranked as the No. 1 newscast in Total Viewers (8.728 million) Adults 25-54 (1.595 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.053 million) during both weeks of an Olympics — since at least the 1992 Summer Olympics (the Nielsen electronic database started in September 1991). “World News Tonight” also ranked as the No. 1 program of the week in all key target demos on all of television (excluding sports and syndication) during the week of Feb. 14, 2022, based on Live + Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research.

“World News Tonight” stood as the evening’s No. 1 newscast across all of broadcast and cable across the board, defeating “NBC Nightly News” (6.995 million, 1.323 million and 965,000, respectively) by 1.733 million Total Viewers, by 272,000 Adults 25-54 and by 88,000 Adults 18-49 during week two of the Winter Olympics.

In addition, “World News Tonight” won its 6th straight Olympic week in Total Viewers, including both weeks of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

“World News Tonight” increased its Total Viewer lead over NBC week to week (1.733 million vs. 1.730 million) to deliver its largest margin of victory over the host network NBC during any Olympics in more than 30 years.

“World News Tonight” has won the last 168 of 169 weeks in Total Viewers and 97 of the last 99 weeks in Adults 25-54.

“World News Tonight” improved in Total Viewers (+17%/1.294 million – 8.728 million vs. 7.434 million), Adults 25-54 (+19%/252,000 – 1.595 million vs. 1.343 million) and Adults 18-49 (+14%/129,000 – 1.053 million vs. 924,000) compared to its performance during week two of the 2020 Summer Olympics (w/o 8/2/21).

“World News Tonight” posted increases from the previous week in Total Viewers (+3%/255,000 – 8.728 million vs. 8.473 million), Adults 25-54 (+3%/50,000 – 1.595 million vs. 1.545 million) and Adults 18-49 (+1%/9,000 – 1.053 million vs. 1.044 million). In fact, “World News Tonight” posted gains in all key target demos in week two from week one of the Olympics for the first time in 12 years — since the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Season to date, “World News Tonight” (8.526 million) is ranking No. 1 in Total Viewers for the 6th consecutive year, based on Most Current Data. “World News Tonight” is leading “NBC Nightly News” (7.332 million) by 1.194 million and “CBS Evening News” (5.265 million) by 3.261 million.

“World News Tonight” is ranking No. 1 in Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 for the 3rd season in a row. “World News Tonight” is surpassing NBC in both Adults 25-54 (+249,000 – 1.575 million vs. 1.326 million) and Adults 18-49 (+137,000 – 1.075 million vs. 938,000).

For the week, “World News Tonight” (8.728 million, 1.595 million and 1.053 million, respectively) defeated “CBS Evening News” (5.284 million, 870,000 and 601,000, respectively) by 3.444 Total Viewers, by 725,000 Adults 25-54 and by 452,000 Adults 18-49.

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

 

 

EVENING NEWS (Week of Feb. 14, 2022):

                                                      TOTAL VIEWERS   ADULTS 25-54     ADULTS 18-49     HOUSEHOLDS

ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT     8,728,000                     1.3/10; 1,595,000    0.8/9; 1,053,000          5.4/15

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS                        6,995,000                     1.1/ 8; 1,323,000     0.7/8; 965,000            4.3/11

CBS EVENING NEWS                         5,284,000                    0.7/ 5; 870,000        0.5/5; 601,000            3.3/ 9

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 2/14/22), Previous Week (w/o 2/7/22) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 2/15/21). Most Current: 2021-2022 Season (9/20/21 – 2/20/22) and 2020-2021 Season (9/21/20 – 2/21/21).  Nielsen ratings for ABC, NBC and CBS include additional airings in select markets. Beginning 8/31/20, national ratings also include Out of Home (OOH) viewing. Averages based on regular telecasts.

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ABC News Media Relations
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