‘World News’ breaks 21-year streak
NEW YORK — ABC’s “World News Tonight” with David Muir has dethroned NBC and finished the television season as the year’s mostwatched evening newscast for the first time in 21 years, since the late Peter Jennings was anchor.
While network evening newscasts have diminished in influence over the years and morning shows make more money, they still collectively reach 23 million viewers each weeknight and are considered the flagship broadcasts of news divisions. Bragging rights are eagerly sought.
“One has to recognize the breaking of one of the great streaks in television,” said James Goldston, ABC News president. Muir and his team “worked immensely hard to do that, and they’ve done it in an extraordinary period of news.”
For the year, “World News Tonight” averaged 8.25 million viewers, while NBC’s “Nightly News” had 8.17 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 6.56 million, according to the Nielsen company. For statistical purposes, television marks its year by the start of a new season of broadcast programs in September.
Like much in television, the programs aren’t a growth industry. ABC moved in front by essentially staying even from the previous two years while its rivals lost viewers.
NBC touted its victory among the 25-to-54-year-old demographic, the statistic primarily used as a basis for advertising sales in news. NBC News ran a full-page newspaper advertisement boasting that it was No. 1 for the second season in a row with “Nightly News,” the “Today” show, “Dateline NBC” and “Meet the Press.” The small print noted they were wins among specific demographic categories, not among all viewers.
For the evening newscasts, NBC News President Noah Oppenheim said he wouldn’t trade places with his ABC counterparts.
“If you are going to go by the quality of the broadcast, ours is superior,” he said. “If you’re going to go by business measurements, we’re winning in the only category that matters.”
Goldston said he wasn’t going to dismiss the large number of viewers not included in that category. “We want to be America’s favorite news show,” he said.
“In a world consumed by social media and fake news, people are thirsting to get a straightforward account of what happened that day,” he said. “I think ‘World News Tonight’ does that better than anybody.”