RATINGS: WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH DAVID MUIR Wins Week With Largest Season Premiere Victory In 24 Years

ABC News' "World News Tonight with David Muir" opened the 2019-2020 season with the largest premiere week Total Viewer victory in 24 years (7.961 million) - since the 1995-1996 season - for the week of Sept. 23, 2019, based on Live + Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. The ABC evening newscast led "NBC Nightly News" (7.279 million) by 682,000 to win premiere week for the 4th consecutive year - since the 2016-2017 season.

On Wednesday (9/25/19), anchor David Muir had a one-on-one interview with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani - winning the night across the board in Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49.

"World News Tonight" widened its margin of victory versus the year-ago week by 14% (vs. 596,000 for w/o 9/24/18). In addition, "World News Tonight" slashed its margins with NBC by more than half year to year in both Adults 25-54 (-61% - 62,000 vs. 161,000) and Adults 18-49 (-86% - 21,000 vs. 153,000), seeing its smallest premiere week gap in Adults 25-54 in 5 years and closest in Adults 18-49 in 12 years - since the 2014-2015 and 2007-2008 seasons, respectively.

"World News Tonight" built on the year-ago premiere week in Adults 18-49 (+25,000/2% - 1.086 million vs. 1.061 million), standing as the only evening newscast to grow in the Adults 18-49 demo.

For the week, "World News Tonight" (7.961 million, 1.522 million and 1.086 million, respectively) defeated "CBS Evening News" (5.068 million, 906,000 and 627,000, respectively) by 2.893 million Total Viewers, by 616,000 Adults 25-54 and 459,000 Adults 18-49, delivering its biggest Total Viewer advantage during premiere week in at least 28 years (since at least the start of Nielsen electronic database in 1991-1992 season).

ABC "World News Tonight with David Muir" airs 6:30-7:00 p.m. EDT on ABC. Almin Karamehmedovic is the executive producer of the broadcast.

EVENING NEWS (Week of Sept. 23, 2019):

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers, Adults 25-54 and Adults 18-49 Live + SD weeks of 9/23/19, 9/16/19 and 9/24/18. Averages based on regular telecasts.