Covering the Battle for Tripoli in Libya, the East Coast Earthquake, and Hurricane Irene “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” Draws Largest Weekly Audience in 3 Months

Reporting on the Earthquake Tuesday, “ABC World News” Has Most-Watched Broadcast Since May

Year-to-Year, “ABC World News” Grows Total Viewing and Demo Audience for Third Consecutive Week – Sees Total Viewing Gains for 27 Consecutive Weeks

ABC Continues to Outperform CBS — Improving its Demo Lead Both Week-to-Week and Year-to-Year

During the week of August 22, 2011, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 7.70 million Total Viewers and a 1.7 rating/7 share/2.18 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.   Growing week to week in Total Viewers (+6%) and Adults 25-54 (+11%), “ABC World News” turned in a 3-month high performance in both Nielsen measures – since w/o 5/23/11.

“ABC World News” posted double-digit gains over the year-ago week in both Total Viewers (+17%) and Adults 25-54 (+27%), up over the same week last year for the 3rd week in a row.  Further, the ABC evening newscast increased it year-to-year Total Viewer streak to 27 weeks in a row.

On Tuesday (8/23/11), “World News,” with coverage of the 5.8-magnitude earthquake that hit the East Coast of the U.S., drew its most-watched telecast (8.44 million) in 3 months – since 5/25/11.

“ABC World News” beat “CBS Evening News” by 1.63 million viewers and by 356,000 Adults 25-54, improving its news demo margins over the CBS program week to week (+18%) and year to year (+57%).

Note: George Stephanopoulos anchored “World News” on Wednesday (8/24) and Thursday (8/25).  On Friday 8/26/11, “CBS Evening News” aired with low coverage (84%) and was recoded “CBS-EVE-NWS” due to the Packers vs. Colts NFL Pre-Season game.  Ratings for Friday are excluded from the average. The CBS weekly average is based on four days only (Monday-Thursday), while the ABC and NBC weekly averages are based on five days.

“ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” airs at 6:30 p.m., (ET) on the ABC Television Network.  Jon Banner is the executive producer of the broadcast.

EVENING NEWS (Week of August 22, 2011)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 08/22/11, 8/15/11 & 8/23/10.  2010-2011 Broadcast Season (9/20/10 – 8/28/11) and 2009-2010 Broadcast Season (9/21/09 – 8/29/10).