ABC/Heidi Gutman David Muir’s broadcast bests ‘Nightly’ one day after NBC News chairman Andrew Lack starts his new job.
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After 288 consecutive weeks as the most-watched of the three broadcast evening newscasts, NBC Nightly News has fallen to ABC’s World News Tonight. It is Nightly‘s first total viewer loss since September 2009 and comes as anchor Brian Williams remains on a six-month suspension for embellishing his proximity to danger during a 2003 reporting trip to Iraq.
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ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir bested Nightly News by 84,000 viewers for the week ending April 3, according to Nielsen. World News pulled in 7.997 million viewers to Nightly‘s 7.913 million. Lester Holt is currently filling in for Williams.
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“Lester Holt has led NBC Nightly News to great success over the past two months, and we continue to be pleased with his strong performance during this time,” an NBC News spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re proud of the caliber of our work and remain committed to delivering the highest quality broadcast for our audience every night.”
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Nightly is still ahead for the season, with an average of 9.2 million total viewers compared with ABC’s 9.1 million. But Muir’s broadcast has already picked off 14 weeks among viewers 25-54, the demographic upon which most news programming is sold to advertisers. World News also won the week among that demo, with 1.95 million viewers compared with NBC’s 1.79 million.
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For ABC News and Muir — who took over the broadcast from Diane Sawyer last September — the win is an important milestone, although it will have no impact on the shows’ immediate financial picture.
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