The renewed evenings news war saw a significant victory this past week as NBC’s “Nightly News” drew a convincing win over ABC’s David Muir while Muir’s “World News Tonight” narrowly won in the coveted A25-54 demo.
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“Nightly” drew 8,782,000 viewers while “WNT” garnered 8,095,000 viewers; a 687,000 viewer victory for NBC. CBS’ “Evening News” with Scott Pelley came in a distant third with 6,438,000 viewers. NBC’s total viewer victory was its best since April while it’s demo number was its strongest since March.
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While finishing far behind in total viewers, Muir’s broadcast narrowly edged out Williams in the demo: 2,114,000 to 2,108,000 viewers. The ABC broadcast has won the first four weeks of the TV season in the demo, its strongest start in seven years–since the 07-08 season.
Also read: David Muir Boosts ‘World News Tonight’ to First Win in Both Key Demos, Total Viewers in 6 Years
A recent Nielsen screw-up temporarily gave Muir–and ABC–its first total viewers victory in five years. Once the numbers were corrected, ABC’s victory was revised and Williams’ broadcast came out as the winner for the week of September 29.