Update 10/14/14: Nielsen has corrected error-plagued ratings data for the week of Sept. 29. “NBC Nightly News” is now No. 1 and the show’s winning streak among total viewers remains unbroken for 264 consecutive weeks. (265 weeks including the week of Oct. 6)
Original Story: With the latest Nielsen evening news ratings just in, ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” had its first outright win in 6 years. The ABC evening newscast finished first among the two younger demos, A25-54 and A18-49, and breaks the 5-year Total Viewer winning streak held by “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.”
This was “World News Tonight’s” first win among total viewers since the week of Sept. 7, 2009. And it’s the first time the program has been #1 in total viewers and both younger demos since the week of Sept. 8, 2008. Muir took over the anchor chair four weeks ago and had been consistently winning the A25-54 demo. For the week of Sept. 29, 2014, “World News Tonight” led “Nightly News” by +166,000 total viewers or 2%. We’ll post the full weekly ratings soon.
MediabistroTV recently sat down with Muir for a “My First Big Break” interview, which we’ll post tomorrow. In this outtake Muir talked about the competition and how he approaches his show: “I’ve watched a lot of Brian Williams on DVR, probably more than he has,” Muir says. “I tell the team here, ‘we don’t look sideways, we hit the ground running.’ And at the end of the day… it’s really about the viewers at home.”