‘World News Tonight With David Muir’ Delivers Largest Viewership in 7 Weeks, Highest Demo Performances in 9 Weeks, and Largest Premiere Week Lead Over NBC in 29 Years

“World News Tonight with David Muir” opened the 2024-2025 season as America’s No. 1 evening newscast in all of broadcast and cable in Total Viewers (7.445 million), Adults 25-54 (1.039 million) and Adults 18-49 (712,000) during the week of Sept. 23, 2024. In fact, “World News Tonight” scored its largest premiere week lead over “NBC Nightly News” in 29 years, delivering the largest viewership in 7 weeks and the highest key Adult demo performances in 9 weeks. Also, “World News Tonight” stood as the most-watched evening newscast during the opening week of the season for the 9th consecutive year and led in all key target demos during premiere week for the 5th year in a row — since premiere weeks of the 2020-2021 and the 2016-2017 seasons, respectively.

• “World News Tonight” outperformed “NBC Nightly News” (5.996 million, 929,000 and 609,000, respectively) by 1.449 million Total Viewers, by 110,000 Adults 25-54 and by 103,000 Adults 18-49, respectively.
• “World News Tonight” widened its margins over “NBC Nightly News” versus the year-ago premiere week in all key target demos: Total Viewer (+18% – 1.449 million vs. 1.228 million), Adults 25-54 (+26% – 110,000 vs. 87,000) and Adults 18-49 (+37% – 103,000 vs. 75,000). In fact, “World News Tonight” delivered its largest premiere week lead over “NBC Nightly News” in 29 years — since the premiere week of the 1995-1996 season.
• “World News Tonight” stood as the No. 2 program of the week in Total Viewers (7.445 million) on all of broadcast and cable (excluding sports).
• “World News Tonight” has won the last 302 of 305 weeks in Total Viewers and 230 of the last 235 in Adults 25-54.
• “World News Tonight” improved on the previous week in Total Viewers (+4%/+261,000 – 7.445 million vs. 7.184 million), Adults 25-54 (+9%/+90,000 – 1.039 million vs. 949,000) and Adults 18-49 (+13%/+82,000 – 712,000 vs. 630,000). “World News Tonight” drew its largest overall audience in 7 weeks and hit 9-week highs in both key Adults demos — since weeks of 8/5/24 and 7/22/24, respectively.
• For the week, “World News Tonight” (7.455 million, 1.039 million and 712,000, respectively) defeated “CBS Evening News” (4.640 million, 680,000 and 456,000, respectively) by 2.805 million Total Viewers, by 359,000 Adults 25-54 and by 256,000 Adults 18-49. “World News Tonight” increased its margins week to week over the CBS program in Total Viewers (+3% – 2.805 million vs. 2.714 million), Adults 25-54 (+35% – 359,000 vs. 265,000) and Adults 18-49 (+45% – 256.000 vs. 176,000).

NOTE: On Monday (9/23/24), “World News Tonight” was retitled to “WNT-ABC” due to “Monday Night Football.” On Friday (9/27/24), “World News Tonight” was also retitled to “WNT-ABC.” The retitled telecasts are excluded from the weekly and season averages. ABC’s weekly averages are based on three days (Tuesday-Thursday).

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

EVENING NEWS (Week of Sept. 23, 2024):

	TOTAL VIEWERS	ADULTS 25-54	ADULTS 18-49	HOUSEHOLDS
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT	7,455,000	0.8/10; 1,039,000	0.5/9; 712,000	4.5/16
NBC NIGHTLY NEWS	5,996,000	0.8/9; 929,000	0.5/8; 609,000	3.3/13
CBS EVENING NEWS	4,640,000	0.6/7; 680,000	0.3/6; 456,000	2.8/10

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD Current Week (w/o 9/23/24), Previous Week (w/o 9/16/24) and Year-Ago Week (w/o 9/25/23).  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
Brooks Lancaster
brooks.lancaster@abc.com

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