Ratings: For First 3 Weeks of Season, “ABC World News” Cuts Gaps with NBC to Smallest Margins in 3 Years

Season-to-Date, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” Cuts Total Viewer and Demo Gaps  with “NBC Nightly News” to Smallest Margins in 3 Years

  “ABC World News” Cuts Weekly Demo Gap with NBC by Double-Digits

Year-to-Year, “ABC World News” Continues to Grow Total Viewing and Demo Audiences

ABC Outperforms “CBS Evening News” by 1.85 Million Viewers and by 365,000 Adults 25-54

For the week of October 3, 2011, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 7.34 million Total Viewers and a 1.6 rating/6 share/1.98 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.  For the 3rd consecutive week, “World News” improved on the same week last year in both Total Viewers (+5%) and Adults 25-54 (+6%).

“ABC World News”  narrowed its weekly margins with “NBC Nightly News” by double-digits in Adults 25-54 (-18% – 242,000 vs. 294,000) .

“ABC World News”  outperformed “CBS Evening News” by 1.85 million Total Viewers and by 365,000 Adults 25-54, delivering its largest Total Viewer advantage in 8 weeks - since w/o 8/8/11.

For the first three weeks of the 2011-12 television season, “World News” is up in both Total Viewers (+4%) and Adults 25-54 (+6%) compared to the same point last season. In fact, the ABC newscast is up the most year to year in the key adults news demo season-to-date (NBC is up by +2%; CBS is up by +1%).  In addition, “World News” has cut its season-to-date gaps with “NBC Nightly News” in both Total Viewer (-7%) and Adults 25-54 (-22%) versus its year-ago season gaps, posting its smallest margins (607,000 and 251,000, respectively) with the NBC program in 3 years – since the 2008-09 season.

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

EVENING NEWS (Week of October 3, 2011)

  Total Viewers      Adults 25-54      Households
       
ABC       7,338,000  1.6/6; 1,979,000     5.0/10
NBC   7,910,000  1.8/7; 2,221,000     5.4/11
CBS   5,484,000  1.3/5; 1,614,000     3.7/ 7

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 10/3/11, 9/26/11 & 10/4/10.  2011-2012 Season (9/19 – 10/9/11) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20 – 10/10/10).