ABC’s “World News Tonight” with anchor David Muir just topped NBC’s “Nightly News” with Lester Holt in weekly TV ratings for the first time in nearly two years.
The ABC News program won March 5-9 in the key 25-54 demographic, the 18-49 demo, and total viewers last week. Ordinarily, it is the main demo that alludes the Disney-owned journalism arm.
ABC’s victory snapped a 21-month, 89-week demo win streak for NBC News. It definitely didn’t hurt the Monday-Friday results that the Oscars had aired on Sunday.
The surging “World News Tonight” on ABC averaged 9.215 million total viewers last week, with 1.988 million of them coming from the advertiser-coveted 25-54 demographic, and 1.381 million aged 18-49.
Those Nielsen numbers beat “Nightly” by 886,000 total viewers, with a gap of 81,000 in the main demo. The 18-49 margin was even slimmer, with ABC scoring a “W” by just 26,000 audience members.
“CBS Evening News” was a distant third as usual, averaging 6.502 million total viewers, with just 1.409 million in the main age-range. The CBS News program drew 948,000 viewers aged 18-49.