ABC's Muir hits five-year mark at 'World News' on the top

NEW YORK (AP) — David Muir is celebrating his fifth anniversary as "World News Tonight" anchor with something that's rare in television: a larger audience.

The ABC newscast finished its year-long season last week with an average of 8.6 million viewers a night, the Nielsen company said. It's the third straight year ABC has won the evening news ratings competition, with its largest margin over NBC in 23 years and CBS in 27 years, the network said.

"World News Tonight" was averaging 7.9 million viewers when Muir replaced Diane Sawyer as anchor of ABC's flagship newscast in September 2014. At the time, NBC's "Nightly News" was the most popular newscast behind anchor Brian Williams, who was replaced by Lester Holt in 2015 after Williams was found to have made false claims about reporting in Iraq.

Muir and Holt ran neck-and-neck in popularity for a period until Muir began pulling away. NBC still holds a slight lead among viewers ages 25-to-54, the demographic that news advertisers seek most eagerly.

"David Muir has a unique ability to connect with the American audience," said Almin Karamehmedovic, executive producer of "World News Tonight." ''He's passionate and he's fearless and he delivers the stories in a way that really resonates."

ABC saw something in Muir and its decision to have him replace Sawyer turned out to be a good one, said Andrew Tyndall, an independent consultant who studies evening newscasts.

ABC also made "World News Tonight" a much faster-paced broadcast that is similar in tone to the local newscasts that usually precede it on ABC's schedule, Tyndall said.

The ABC newscast's average audience of 8.61 million is slightly down from last year's average of 8.64 million, Nielsen said. "Nightly News" has slipped from 8.16 million viewers each night to 7.95 million. The "CBS Evening News," where Norah...