Season-to-Date, "ABC World News" Narrows Total Viewing and Demo Gaps with  "NBC Nightly News" to Smallest Margins in 3 Years

ABC Outperforms "CBS Evening News" by 1.35 Million Viewers and by 211,000 Adults 25-54

For the week of April 16, 2012, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.12 million Total Viewers and a 1.6 rating/6 share/1.88 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

"World News" slashed its year-ago gap with "NBC Nightly News" among Adults 25-54 by -40% (316,000 vs. 525,000).   In fact, "World News" has decreased its year-to-year news demo gap with the NBC program by double-digits for the 7th week in a row and in 8 of the last 9 weeks.

Season-to-date, "World News" has narrowed the gaps with "NBC Nightly News" among both Total Viewers (-1%) and Adults 25-54 (-21%), posting its smallest Total Viewer (1.09 million) and news demo margins (368,000) with the NBC program in 3 years - since the 2008-09 season.

"World News" outperformed "CBS Evening News" by 1.35 million Total Viewers and by 211,000 Adults 25-54, drawing its largest Total Viewer lead over the CBS program in 5 weeks - since w/o 3/12/12.

"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. Follow Diane Sawyer and the "World News" team online: @DianeSawyer; @ABCWorldNews; facebook.com/WorldNews.

EVENING NEWS (Week of April 16, 2012)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 4/16/12, 4/9/12 & 4/18/11.  Most Current - 2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 - 4/22/12) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20/11 - 4/24/11).