“ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” Cuts Total Viewer and Demo Gaps with “NBC Nightly News” By Double Digits Year-to-Year  

Compared to Same Week Last Year, “ABC World News” Cuts the Demo Gap with “NBC Nightly News” in Half

On Friday, “ABC World News” was the #1 Evening Newscast in Key News Demo – Outperforming “NBC Nightly News” by 90,000 Adults 25-54

“ABC World News” Grows Overall Audience Year-to-Year During All 9 Weeks of the Season

For the week of November 14, 2011, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 8.01 million Total Viewers and a 1.8 rating/6 share/2.23 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.  Growing its key adult news demo (+3% – 2.16 million on w/o 11/7/11) for the 2nd week in a row to hit a season-high, “World News” posted its strongest Adults 25-54 performance in nearly 8 months - since w/o 3/21/11.  In fact, the ABC newscast stood as the only newscast to grow week-to-week in the key adult news demo as both NBC (-7%) and CBS (-3%) were down.  Drawing a season-best in Adults 25-54 (2.44 million), Tuesday’s broadcast (11/15/11) stood as “World News’” top regular telecast in the key news demo in over 5 months – since 5/24/11.

Week-to-Week, “ABC World News”  narrowed the viewing gaps with “NBC Nightly News” among Total Viewers (-4% – 1.06 million vs. 1.10 million) and Adults 25-54 (-51% – 241,000 vs. 488,000), scoring its smallest news demo gap with the NBC newscast since the season premiere week 8 weeks ago – since w/o 9/19/11 .  For the 3rd week in a row, “ABC World News”  cut the gaps with “NBC Nightly News” year-to-year in both Total Viewers (-29% – 1.06 million vs. 1.49 million) and Adults 25-54 (-47% – 241,000 vs. 457,000) .

On Friday (11/18/11), “ABC World News” was the No. 1 evening newscast in the key adult news demo outdrawing “NBC Nightly News” by 90,000 Adults 25-54 (2.05 million vs. 1.96 million) .

“ABC World News”  bettered the “CBS Evening News” by 1.26 million Total Viewers and by 299,000 Adults 25-54.

“ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” has grown its Total Viewing audience year-to-year in each of the first nine weeks of the 2011-2012 season. Season to date, “World News” is up in both Total Viewers (+5%) and Adults 25-54 (+2%) compared to the same point last season.  Additionally, “World News” has cut its season-to-date gaps with “NBC Nightly News” by double-digits in both Total Viewers (-15%) and Adults 25-54 (-11%), posting its smallest news demo margin (323,000) with the NBC program in 3 years – since the 2008-09 season.

Note:  David Muir anchored “World News” Thursday (11/17) and Friday (11/18).

“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 November 14, 2011

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 11/14/11, 11/7/11 & 11/15/10.  2011-2012 Season (9/19 – 11/20/11) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20 – 11/21/10).