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ABC World News Tonight with David Muir has led the network nightly news ratings in recent years. That lead grew last week after Muir led the ABC News election night coverage.
During the election week, the nightly news show led by Muir averaged 7.4 million total viewers. That represented a 1.3 million viewer lead over NBC Nightly News, anchored by Lester Holt, which avearged 6.1 million total viewers for the week.
CBS Evening News — anchored by Norah O’Donnell who is preparing to exit the anchor chair in the coming weeks — finished with a total of 4.5 million viewers, on average.
In the Adults 25-54 demographic, the race was much tighter. ABC News held the lead with just under 1.1 million viewers. The Holt-led program featured an average audience of 967,000 from the coveted demographic. CBS News was close behind with 787,000 viewers in that demo.
ABC World News Tonight is in its ninth consecutive year of leading the overall nightly news ratings. The network currently holds its largest lead over NBC News for the season in the past 30 years.
The extension of the lead comes on the heels of David Muir leading the ABC News coverage of the 2024 presidential election last week. The network trailed on Fox News in overall viewing on the pivotal night, with 5.7 million viewers tuning into the network’s election night coverage.
