“ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” Cuts Total Viewer and Demo Gaps with  “NBC Nightly News” Year-to-Year – Narrows Total Viewer Gap by 29%

ABC Outperforms “CBS Evening News” by 1.61 Million Viewers and by 310,000 Adults 25-54

Season-to-date, “ABC World News” Increases Both Total Viewing and Demo Audiences

For the week of October 31, 2011, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 7.65 million Total Viewers and a 1.6 rating/6 share/1.97 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.  Growing its overall audience week to week by 2%, “World News” hit a 10-week high in Total Viewers - best since w/o 8/22/11 .  In addition, the ABC evening newscast improved on the year-ago week by 6% in Total Viewers (7.23 million on w/o 11/1/10), building year-to-year in all 7 weeks of the season.

“ABC World News”  cut the gaps with “NBC Nightly News” among both Total Viewers (-29% – 1.03 million vs. 1.45 million) and Adults 25-54 (-2% – 508,000 vs. 521,000) compared to the year-ago week.

“ABC World News”  outperformed the “CBS Evening News” by 1.61 million Total Viewers and by 310,000 Adults 25-54.

Season to date, “World News” is up in both Total Viewers (+5%) and Adults 25-54 (+4%) compared to the same point last season.  Additionally, “World News” has cut its season-to-date gaps with “NBC Nightly News” in both Total Viewer (-8%) and Adults 25-54 (-3%), posting its smallest news demo margin (312,000) 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 31, 2011)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 10/31/11, 10/24/11 & 11/1/10.  2011-2012 Season (9/19 – 11/6/11) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20 – 11/7/10).