During the 4th Quarter of 2011, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer"  Substantially Narrowed the Viewership Gaps with "NBC Nightly News" Year-to-Year  Slashing Total Viewer Gap by 19% and Demo Gap by 25%

For the Week of December 19, "World News" Cut the Total Viewing and Demo Gaps with

"NBC Nightly News" - Marking the Smallest Gap, 87,000 Adults 25-54, in 2 Years

On Wednesday, "ABC World News" was the #1 Evening Newscast Among Adults 25-54

For the 4th Quarter 2011, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.78 million Total Viewers and a 1.7 rating/6 share/2.10 million among Adults 25-54.  "World News" delivered increases over the year-ago quarter in both measures (4Q10 - 7.59 million and 2.09 million). In addition, "World News" was up over the previous quarter (3Q11) in both Total Viewers (+7%) and Adults 25-54 (+8%), posting its best quarter performance in 3 quarters - since 1Q11.

Compared to the year-ago quarter (4Q10), "World News" decreased its margins with "NBC Nightly News" by double-digits in both overall viewers (-19% - 937,000 vs. 1.15 million) and in the key adult news demo (-25% - 318,000 vs. 422,000), scoring its smallest news demo margin during a 4th quarter in 3 years - since 4Q08.  

For the 2nd quarter in a row, "World News" narrowed its Adults 25-54 margin with "NBC Nightly News" versus the previous quarter (-22% - 318,000 vs. 409,000 for 3Q11), turning in its smallest news demo margin in 6 quarters - since 2Q10.

"World News" outperformed the "CBS Evening News" during 4Q11 by 1.60 million Total Viewers and by 309,000 Adults 25-54 viewers.

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For the week of December 19, 2011, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 8.18 million Total Viewers and a 1.9 rating/6 share/2.24 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research. Improving on the previous week by 5% in Total Viewers and by 11% in Adults 25-54 (7.78 million and 2.02 million, respectively, on w/o 12/12/11) , "World News" delivered its 2nd-best performance of the season in the key adult news demo.    

The ABC evening newscast built on the year-ago week in both Total Viewers (+3%) and Adults 25-54 (+5%), growing its overall audience year-to-year in 12 of 14 weeks this season.  Additionally, "World News" stood as the only evening newscast to grow over the same week last year in Adults 25-54 (NBC was down -14%; CBS was down -8%).

On Wednesday (12/21/11), "ABC World News" was the No. 1 evening newscast in the key adult news demo outperforming "NBC Nightly News" by 15,000 Adults 25-54 (2.31 million vs. 2.16 million) .

"World News" slashed its year-to-year gaps with "NBC Nightly News" among both Total Viewers (-70% - 459,000 vs. 1.53 million) and Adults 25-54 (-84% - 87,000 vs. 558,000), representing the 7th time in the last 8 weeks "World News" has narrowed the Total Viewing gap and the 8th time in 8 weeks that ABC has narrowed the demo gap.

In addition, for the 4th week in a row the ABC evening newscast   cut its margins with "NBC Nightly News" among both Total Viewers (-53% - 459,000 vs. 970,000) and Adults 25-54 (-70% - 87,000 vs. 287,000) week-to-week, delivering the smallest news demo margin with the NBC program in over 2 years - since w/o 9/7/09.

"ABC World News"  topped the "CBS Evening News" by 1.75 million Total Viewers and by 419,000 Adults 25-54, drawing its largest Total Viewer advantage in 6 weeks - since w/o 11/7/11.

Season to date, "World News" is up in both Total Viewers (+2%) and Adults 25-54 (+1%) 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 (-19%) and Adults 25-54 (-25%), posting its smallest news demo margin (318,000) with the NBC program in 3 years - since the 2008-09 season.

Note: Due to the Christmas holiday, "World News" was re-titled "Wrld News Tonite" on Friday (12/23/11) and is excluded from the average. NBC "Nightly News" and CBS' "Evening News" are based on 5 days.

"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 (4th Quarter, 2011)

EVENING NEWS (Week of December 19, 2011)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 12/19/11, 12/12/11 & 12/20/10.  Most Current - 4Q11: 9/19/11 - 12/25/11.  3Q11: 6/27 - 9/18/11. 4Q11: 9/20/10 - 12/26/10.  2011-2012 Season (9/19 - 12/25/11) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20 - 12/26/10).