ABC World News Tonight with David Muir has reason to celebrate as it ends the third quarter as the top-rated evening network newscast.
For the quarter, the ABC News broadcast averaged 7.3 million total viewers. That figure bested both NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (6.2 million) and CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell (4.3 million).
The race was much tighter in the Adults 25-54 demographic, as ABC News beat NBC News 995,000 to 961,000 in that demographic. In the younger Adults 18-49 demo, NBC News actually topped the Muir-led program with 689,000 viewers compared to 678,000.
Earlier this month, David Muir moderated the ABC News Presidential Debate — alongside Linsey Davis — that featured quick fact-checking against Republican nominee Donald Trump. Many observers believed it was biased in nature, leading them to posit the ratings for ABC World News Tonight dropping slightly in the days following the debate.
However, the slight ratings dip coincided with a carriage dispute between The Walt Disney Company — parent company to ABC — and DirecTV that saw channels removed from the satellite provider’s lineup.
During the week of September 16th, the ratings for the program anchored by Muir rebounded after Disney television channels were reinserted for DirecTV subscribers. The show averaged 7.2 million viewers for the week, up from the 6.9 million it featured during the week following the debate.
Meanwhile, NBC Nightly News averaged 5.6 million total viewers, with CBS Evening News earning an audience of 4.5 million.
