"ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" Cuts Both Total Viewing and Demo Gaps  with "NBC Nightly News" by Double Digits Week-to-Week, Year-to-Year, and Season-to-Date  

ABC Newscast Outperforms CBS by 1.48 Million Total Viewers and 217,000 Adults 25-54  

For the week of December 12, 2011, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.78 million Total Viewers and a 1.7 rating/6 share/2.02 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

For the 3rd week running, "ABC World News" narrowed its week-to-week gaps with "NBC Nightly News" in both Total Viewers (-28% - 970,000 vs. 1.35 million) and Adults 25-54 (-28% - 287,000 vs. 401,000), scoring its smallest Total Viewer margin in 8 weeks - since wo/ 10/17/11.

Additionally, the ABC evening newscast  cut its year-to-year gaps with "Nightly News" by double-digits in both Total Viewers (-30% - 970,000 vs. 1.38 million) and Adults 25-54 (-35% - 287,000 vs. 441,000), marking the 6th time in the last 7 weeks to decrease its year-ago Total Viewer gap and the 7th consecutive week in the key adult news demo.

"ABC World News" outperformed the "CBS Evening News" by 1.48 million Total Viewers and by 217,000 Adults 25-54.

Season to date, "World News" is up in Total Viewers (+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 (-14%) and Adults 25-54 (-19%), posting its smallest news demo margin (335,000) 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 December 12, 2011)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 12/12/11, 12/5/11 & 12/13/10.  2011-2012 Season (9/19 - 12/18/11) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20 - 12/19/10).