ABC's WORLD NEWS TONIGHT Ranks as No. 1 Evening Newscast in Key Demo

ABC News' "World News Tonight with David Muir" ranked as the week's No. 1 evening newscast in both Adults 25-54 (1.896 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.330 million) for the week of July 20, 2015, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. "World News Tonight" beat "NBC Nightly News" (1.841 million and 1.310 million, respectively) by 55,000 Adults 25-54 and 20,000 Adults 18-49.

For the 2nd week in a row, "World News Tonight" improved on the previous week (1.795 million and 1.252 million, respectively, for w/o 7/13/15) in Adults 25-54 (+6%) and Adults 18-49 (+6%), hitting a 4-week high in Adults 25-54 and a 5-week high in Adults 18-49 - since weeks of 6/22/15 and 6/15/15, respectively. In addition, the ABC program stood as the only evening newscast to improve on the previous week in either demo as "CBS Evening News" (-7%/-6%) and "NBC Nightly News" (-2%/-2%) were down in both measures.

"World News Tonight" improved on the year-ago week (7.191 million, 1.819 million and 1.193 million, respectively, on w/o 7/21/14) in all three key target demos: Total Viewers (+3%), Adults 25-54 (+4%), Adults 18-49 (+11%).

"World News Tonight" cut its Total Viewers margins with "NBC Nightly News" by double-digits both week to week (-30% - 217,000 vs. 309,000) and year to year (-63% - 217,000 vs. 584,000).

Season to date, "World News Tonight" has slashed nearly all of its season margin with "NBC Nightly News" in Adults 25-54 (-7% - 96,000 vs. 174,000), delivering its closest news demo performance with the NBC program in 8 years - since the 2006-07 season.

Season to date, "World News Tonight" is averaging 481,000 more viewers, compared to the same time frame last season (8.404 million vs. 7.923 million), while "NBC Nightly News" is posting a 252,000 average loss (8.757 million vs. 9.009 million). For the 2nd year in a row, "World News Tonight" is improving versus the same point last season in both Total Viewers (+6%) and Adults 25-54 (+1%). In fact, "World News Tonight" is improving the most in Total Viewers and standing as the only evening newscast to grow in Adults 25-54 compared to "CBS Evening News" (+3%/-2%) and "NBC Nightly News" (-3%/-7%).

"World News Tonight" is averaging its largest overall viewer audience in 8 years and strongest in the key adult news demo in 4 years - since the 2006-07 and the 2010-11 seasons, respectively.

"World News Tonight" cut its season gaps with "NBC Nightly News" by more than half in Total Viewers (-67% - 353,000 vs. 1.086 million) and Adults 18-49 (-62% - 87,000 vs. 229,000) to its closest performance in 7 years in Total Viewers and in 8 years in Adults 18-49 - since the 2007-08 and the 2006-07 seasons, respectively.

For the week, "World News Tonight" led the "CBS Evening News" by 1.376 million Total Viewers, by 552,000 Adults 25-54 and by 377,000 Adults 18-49, posting its largest overall viewer lead in 3 months and biggest in both adult demos in 7 weeks - since weeks of 4/20/15 and 6/1/15, respectively.

ABC "World News Tonight with David Muir" airs at 6:30 p.m., ET on the ABC Television Network. Almin Karamehmedovic is the executive producer of the broadcast. Follow David Muir and the "World News Tonight" team online: @DavidMuir; @WNTonight; facebook.com/DavidMuirABC; facebook.com/WorldNewsTonight.

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