“ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” Grows Total Viewing Audiences During Both 2010-11 Season and 3rd Quarter of 2011

“ABC World News” Cuts the Total Viewer Gap with “NBC Nightly News” During 2010-11 Season – Outperforms “CBS Evening News” by Largest Total Viewing Margin in 3 Years

  “ABC World News” Grows Total Viewing Audience Each Week During the 3rd Quarter Compared to 2010

  “ABC World News” Cuts Total Viewing Gap with NBC to Smallest Margin in 5 Quarters  

For the 2010-11 television season, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 7.81 million Total Viewers and a 1.7 rating/7 share/2.13 million among Adults 25-54.  The ABC evening newscast improved on its overall audience by +3% over the 2009-10 season (7.56 million) .  In fact, “World News” was up on the year-ago week in the final 30 weeks of the season. 

“World News” narrowed its Total Viewer season margin with “NBC Nightly News” versus the 2009-10 television season.  

“World News” outperformed “CBS Evening News” by 1.94 million viewers and by 357,000 Adults 25-54, improving on its Total Viewer advantage season to season (+5%) for the 2nd year in a row (+1.85 million for the 2009-10 season) .  In fact, “World News” scored its largest overall viewer advantage over the CBS program in 3 seasons – since the 2007-08 season.  

********* For the 3rd Quarter 2011, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 7.30 million Total Viewers and a 1.6 rating/6 share/1.94 million among Adults 25-54.  Compared to the year-ago quarter (3Q10), “World News” saw gains in both Total Viewers (+7%) and Adults 25-54 (+5%), posting its most-watched 3Q audience in 3 years – since 3Q08.  Additionally, “World News” improved on the year-ago week in Total Viewers in all 12 weeks of the 3rd quarter.   

Compared to the previous quarter (2Q11), “World News” narrowed its margins with “NBC Nightly News” by double-digits in both Total Viewers (-20% – 687,000 vs. 860,000) and Adults 25-54 (-21% – 411,000 vs. 517,000).  “World News” turned in its smallest Total Viewer gap in 5 quarters and smallest in Adults 25-54 in 4 quarters – since 2Q10 and 3Q10, respectively.

“World News” topped the “CBS Evening News” by 1.66 million Total Viewers and by 280,000 Adults 25-54 viewers during 3Q11 .

********* For the week of September 12, 2011, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 7.25 million Total Viewers and a 1.5 rating/6 share/1.87 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.  The ABC evening newscast improved on the year-ago week in Total Viewers by 5%, stretching its year-over-year growth in overall viewers to 30 straights weeks.   

“ABC World News”  narrowed its weekly margins with “NBC Nightly News” in both Total Viewers (-9% – 974,000 vs. 1.07 million)  and Adults 25-54 (-15% – 450,000 vs. 528,000). 

“ABC World News”  bettered “CBS Evening News” by 1.51 million viewers and by 169,000 Adults 25-54.

Note : On Monday (9/12/11), the “CBS Evening News” was preempted for U.S. Open Tennis. The weekly averages for both “ABC World News” and “NBC Nightly News” are based on 5 days (Mon-Fri), while “Evening News’” weekly average is based on 4 days (Tue-Fri).

“ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” airs at 6:30 p.m., (ET) on the ABC Television Network.  Jon Banner was the executive producer of the broadcast for the 2010-11 television season.

EVENING NEWS (2010-11 Television Season)

EVENING NEWS (3rd Quarter, 2011)

EVENING NEWS (Week of September 12, 2011)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 09/05/11, 8/29/11 & 9/6/10.  3Q11: 6/27 – 9/18/11.  2Q11: 3/28 – 6/26/11. 3Q10: 6/28 – 9/19/10.  Television Season (9/20/10 – 9/18/11)  and 2009-2010 Broadcast Season (9/21/09 – 9/19/10).