ABC World News Tonight, with David Muir, continues to win the evening news ratings race, with all three network newscasts delivering week-to-week total viewer gains, but losing Adults 25-54.
Lester Holt may be turning up more frequently in David Muir‘s rear-view mirror. During Muir’s tenure at World News Tonight, the ABC broadcast has done something most TV programs cannot do in the streaming era: Add new linear viewers. Yet in recent weeks one of the evening-news program’s competitors has nibbled at its lead in a crucial category of viewer.
Just a few weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir was the first American correspondent to interview the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. So Muir thought that it was time to bring what was happening in the country back to the forefront. Over what was Labor Day weekend in the U.S., the ABC anchor returned to Ukraine for an interview with Zelensky.
Long Island University released the winners of the George Polk Awards in Journalism, honoring journalists in 15 categories for their reporting in 2021. Award winners span a wide range of revelatory news coverage. The broadcasting winners included Dave Biscobing of KNXV, the E.W. Scripps ABC affiliate in Phoenix, who was honored for Local Television Reporting for “Politically Charged,” a series of reports revealing that police and prosecutors testified to the existence of a street gang they invented to convince a grand jury to authorize surveillance of political protestors. Also honored were ABC News anchor David Muir, executive producer Almin Karamehmedovic and producer Esther Castillejo; A.C.Thompson of ProPublica and two collaborators, PBS Frontline and the Berkeley Investigative Reporting Program; and CNN Chief Foreign Correspondent Clarissa Ward and her crew who won for Foreign Television Reporting.
David Muir will start to lead breaking-news duties at ABC News, a new effort by the Walt Disney unit to rework an unorthodox arrangement involving two of its top anchors. Under a new structure, Muir will largely handle the bulk of ABC News’ special reports and news of national importance, while George Stephanopoulos, the Good Morning America and This Week anchor may shepherd similar efforts in the morning, according to three people familiar with the matter.
ABC’s World News Tonight won the quarter in average total viewers for nightly news broadcasts, according to Nielsen Media Research ratings, topping average and age-demo rankings for the 6:30 p.m. ET slot. For the second quarter of 2020, World News Tonight, hosted by David Muir, brought in an average of 10,331,000 viewers total. Comparatively, NBC’s Nightly News with Lester Holt took in an average of 8,866,000 and CBS’s Evening News, helmed by Norah O’Donnell, secured 6,257,000 viewers on average.
Exclusives
For the past several months, the national evening newscasts have been the most-watched television programs in the country. The nation has turned its eyes by the millions to trusted anchors Lester Holt (NBC), Norah O’Donnell (CBS) and David Muir (ABC) to get the latest information on the coronavirus. And now another story — the death of George Floyd and the following protests — has gripped the nation, making the evening news as critical as ever. The three anchors address the question: What is the mission of the nightly news in these times?
The president has given his first non-Fox interview in five months to ABC News anchor David Muir.
ABC’s Muir Trying To Stay ‘Calm And Steady’
David Muir’s World News Tonight has been the top-rated show in all of American television for three weeks this month, averaging nearly 11 million viewers per night. Amid the devastation in New York City, Muir is still anchoring the show every night from an almost-empty ABC newsroom. He’s hosted three primetime specials on the pandemic, including one on Monday night that featured an interview with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
The Radio Television Digital News Foundation held its 30th Annual First Amendment Awards last week in Washington. Other winners: 60 Minutes, NBC’s Bob Horner, Telemundo’s Lori Montenegro, Hearst Television’s Barbara Maushard, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, and WFLA Tampa, Fla., reporter Steve Andrews.
The Radio Television Digital News Foundation has announced the winners of the 30th annual First Amendment Awards. They represent the role journalists play in local and national media to practice the First Amendment. A total of seven awards will be given, to ABC’s David Muir, 60 Minutes, NBC’s Bob Horner, Hearst’s Barbara Maushard, Telemundo’s Lori Montenegro, Sen. Richard Blumenthal and WFLA’s Steve Andrews.
ABC’s Muir Hits 5 Years At ‘World News’ On Top
ABC is finishing the season with its largest lead over NBC in 23 years, and 27 years for CBS. It’s the third consecutive year that ABC has won the ratings competition.
Chief anchor George Stephanopoulos, World News Tonight anchor David Muir, correspondent Linsey Davis and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos will moderate the network’s Democratic candidate debate next month. The debate, to be held in Houston, will take only one night unless more than 10 Democratic candidates qualify. As it currently stands, 10 candidates have qualified to participate.
ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir will be honored at the New York State Leadership and Hall of Fame Luncheon on Oct. 18 at the Javits Center in New York City.
ABC’s David Muir, CBS’s Scott Pelley and NBC’s Lester Holt sat down last week in New York with Variety for a candid conversation about the news business. Among their observations: Pelley: “Our job is unchanged. Find the facts, present the truth, let the audience know what our process is.” Muir: “I think one of the challenges we’re facing right now is that what the president says is often different from what his staff members will tell us.” Holt: “Sometimes I think about our short attention spans these days, it’s like the evening news shows were kind of ahead of their game. Now, 30 minutes is actually a pretty good time.”
ABC’s Muir Reflects On 2 Years As Anchor
In the two years since David Muir took over as anchor of ABC World News Tonight, he’s done town hall specials with President Obama and Pope Francis and moderated primary debates with both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates. He’s done his evening newscast from San Bernardino; Orlando, Fla.; Paris; and Brussels to report on terrorist attacks, and Dallas, where five policemen were shot dead in July. He reflects on his second anniversary in the job.
World News Tonight anchor David Muir and ABC’s chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz will moderate two primary debates in the coming weeks, both from New Hampshire, site of the first-in-the-nation primary.
ABC’s David Muir is a TV natural, in his element alone at a news desk but more so when out and about doing things that networks anchors just didn’t used to do.
Muir, 40, joins NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and Scott Pelley of the CBS Evening News at one of the three jobs generally considered the pinnacle of American broadcast news. Muir is also a generation younger than the 55-year-old Williams and Pelley, 57.
Diane Sawyer will lead “new programming,” the network said today, “tackling big issues and extraordinary interviews”. George Stephanopoulos, who anchors Good Morning America and This Week, will add the title “chief anchor of ABC News” and handle special reports and breaking news. David Miur, who has anchored 20/20 since 2013 as well as the weekend newscast, will become anchor and managing editor of World News starting Sept. 2.
Following Chirs Cuomo’s exit to CNN, ABC News confirms that the correspondent will join Elizabeth Vargas at the desk.
