Year-to-Year, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" Substantially Narrowed Viewership Gaps  with "NBC Nightly News" - Slashing Total Viewer Gap by 38% and Demo Gap by 56%

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

ABC Outperformed "CBS Evening News" by 1.80 Million Total Viewers and 349,000 Adults 25-54  

During 2011 "ABC World News" Increased its Overall Viewership and  Narrowed Overall Viewing Gap with NBC by Double-Digits

For the week of December 26, 2011, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.96 million Total Viewers and a 1.8 rating/6 share/2.15 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

For the 2nd Wednesday in a row, "ABC World News" was the No. 1 evening newscast in the key adult news demo, outdrawing "NBC Nightly News" by 40,000 Adults 25-54 (2.33 million vs. 2.29 million - on 12/28/11) .

Year-to-Year, "World News" cut its margins with "NBC Nightly News" by double-digits among both Total Viewers (-38% - 750,000 vs. 1.20 million) and Adults 25-54 (-56% - 202,000 vs. 456,000).  This marked the 8th time in the last 9 weeks in Total Viewers and the 9th straight week in Adults 25-54 that "World News" has narrowed its year-to-year gaps with the NBC program.

"ABC World News"  outperformed the "CBS Evening News" by 1.80 million Total Viewers and by 349,000 Adults 25-54, posting is largest Total Viewer lead in 7 weeks - since w/o 11/7/11.

For the 2011 calendar year, "World News" improved over 2010 in both Total Viewers (+5%) and Adults 25-54 (+2%) .  In addition, "World News" narrowed its year-to-year gap with "NBC Nightly News" in Total Viewers (-13% - 926,000 vs. 1.07 million) .

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 (-18%) and Adults 25-54 (-25%), posting its smallest news demo margin (313,000) with the NBC program in 3 years - since the 2008-09 season.

Note : Due to the Christmas holiday, all three programs were coded specials on Monday (12/26/11). In addition, due to the New Year's holiday, "World News" was re-titled "Wrld News Tonite" on Fri 12/30/11. Ratings for these telecasts were excluded from the weekly average averages.

"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 26, 2011)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 12/26/11, 12/19/11 & 12/27/10.  Most Current - 2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 - 1/1/12) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20/11 - 1/2/11).  Calendar Year 2011 (1/1 - 12/31/11) and Calendar Year 2010 (1/1 - 12/31/10).