ABC News said that the audience for Monday night’s World News Tonight with David Muir grew by 9% versus the same period a year ago.
The network pointed out the ratings amid claims on the right that the World News Tonight audience has taken a hit following last week’s presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, an event that was co-moderated by Muir and Linsey Davis, anchor for ABC News Now.
According to the latest numbers, World News Tonight had 7.6 million viewers, the highest Monday night in five weeks. NBC Nightly News drew 6.15 million viewers, and CBS Evening News drew 4.6 million.
The ratings are from Nielsen via ABC News.
Trump and his allies blasted ABC News following the debate, claiming the network was biased against him as Muir and Davis fact-checked some of his claims at various points. Figures on the right also have floated conspiracy theories that the network fed questions to Harris, even though there is no evidence that occurred. The network has said that it followed debate rules that no questions or topics would be shared in advance with the campaigns.
In the three days after the debate, the World News Tonight audience averaged 6.68 million viewers, compared to 6.74 million in the three days before the event. The network was blacked out to DirecTV subscribers during that period due to an ongoing carriage dispute that ended last weekend.
