ABC News’ “World News Tonight With David Muir” won the July 2017 sweep in Total Viewers, averaging 7.53 million viewers.
“World News Tonight” has won all four sweeps periods of the 2016-17 television season, marking the first time the network earned that honor in a season since Peter Jennings was anchor 21 years ago from 1995-96. It is also ABC’s first July sweep victory over “Nightly News” since 2007.
“From day one, David Muir and this team have remained focused on the reporting and the viewers every night, their concerns, their hopes — and we are grateful they have noticed,” executive producer Almin Karamehmedovic told TheWrap. “This achievement is because of everyone at home,” he added.
“NBC Nightly News” finished second, averaging 7.3 million total viewers. NBC also picked up a victory in the key news demographic of adults age 25-54, averaging 1.6 million demo viewers compared to 1.5 million for ABC. “CBS Evening News” finished third in both categories, averaging 5.7 million total viewers and 1.9 million among the demo.
ABC insiders feel that the success is partially because Muir’s a “modern” anchor who writes his own pieces, helps edit packages and even tweets during commercial breaks. The total viewers victory for “World News Tonight” was its largest overall viewer advantage over CBS during a July sweep in 21 years.