Who Said Broadcast News Is Dying? ABC’s David Muir Has Top Show on All of TV for Last 10 Weeks
(ABC/Heidi Gutman)
ABC News’ World News Tonight with David Muir notched ten straight weeks as the most-watched show on television last week, bucking industry-wide trends that have seen linear programming decline.
Muir’s evening news cast was the only one to grow across the board both year to year and week to week, raking in a whopping 7.266 million total viewers and 1.037 million viewers in the key 25-54 age demographic. Muir not only trounced his evening news rivals but also edged out competition from sporting events, including Fox’s MLB All-Star Game, which brought in 7.185 million broadcast viewers. It was only the second win in 33 years of Nielsen same-day ratings tracking that an evening newscast beat the All-Star Game in total viewers.
NBC’s Nightly News came in second in the evening newscasts with 5.583 million total viewers, while CBS Evening News landed in third with 3.77 million total viewers for the week. So far this season, which began in September, ABC’s World News Tonight has extended its reign at number 1 for the ninth consecutive year with an average of 7.69 million viewers.
NBC Nightly News has brought in 6.11 million average total viewers so far this season, while CBS Evening News has scored 4.26 million average total viewers season to date. Muir has extended his lead over both his NBC and CBS rivals so far this season, bringing his lead over NBC to a 30-year high, while his lead over CBS is the largest in 4 years.
Muir’s growing audience is particularly notable given the strong headwinds facing broadcast television at the moment. In June, broadcast TV hit a new low in terms of its share of overall viewership in the country. Nielsen’s Gauge rankings, which track television use by platform, found that broadcast dipped below 20 percent of total television viewing for the first time ever for the month, cratering to 18.5 percent, down from 20.1 in May. As cable cutting and the rise of streaming has continued to draw viewers away from cable, many worry if broadcast TV has lost its role at the center of the U.S. entertainment industry, a concern Muir’s staying power may prove is yet unrealized.
