"World News" Cuts Year-to-Year Demo Gap with "Nightly News" by Double-Digits for 12 Consecutive Weeks

May 2012 Sweep For the May 2012 sweep "World News" decreased its Total Viewer gap with "Nightly News" by -38% (545,000 vs. 879,000), while slashing its Adults 25-54 margin by -58% (230,000 vs. 545,000) versus the May 2011 sweep.  In fact, "World News" delivered its smallest May sweep margins with "Nightly News" in 4 years - since May 2008.

 "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.21 million Total Viewers and a 1.6 rating/6 share/1.88 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.    

Compared to the previous sweep (February 2012), "World News" decreased its gaps with "Nightly News" by more than half in both Total Viewers (-63% - 545,000 vs. 1.47 million) and Adults 25-54 (-56% - 230,000 vs. 523,000).  "World News" scored its smallest sweep margins with the NBC newscast in 14 sweeps periods - since November 2008.

"ABC World News" topped the "CBS Evening News" by 1.53 million Total Viewers and by 263,000 Adults 25-54 during the May 2012 Sweep.

Week of May 21, 2012 For the week of May 21, 2012, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.17 million Total Viewers and a 1.5 rating/6 share/1.81 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

"ABC World News" ranked as the No. 1 evening newscast in Total Viewers on Monday (5/21/12), outdrawing "NBC Nightly News" by 41,000 viewers (7.949 million vs. 7.908 million).   

For the 4th straight week, "World News" narrowed margins with "NBC Nightly News" from the year-ago week by double-digits in both Total Viewers (-37% - 586,000 vs. 928,000) and Adults 25-54 (-51% - 311,000 vs. 637,000). "World News" has cut the demo gap with "Nightly News" by double-digits for 12 consecutive weeks, and in 13 of the last 14.

Season to date, "World News" is narrowing its gaps with "NBC Nightly News" among both Total Viewers (-4%) and Adults 25-54 (-27%), posting its smallest Total Viewer (1.03 million) and news demo margins (350,000) with the NBC program in 3 years - since the 2008-09 season.

"World News" bettered the "CBS Evening News" in Total Viewers (+1.741 million) and Adults 25-54 (+322,000).  "World News" led the CBS program by its largest Total Viewer margin since December and saw its biggest news demo lead since March - since w/o 12/26/11 and w/o 3/5/12, respectively.

"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 (May 2012)

EVENING NEWS (Week of May 21, 2012)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 5/21/12, 5/14/12 & 5/23/11.  Most Current - 2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 - 5/25/12) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20/11 - 5/27/11).  May 2012 Sweep: 4/26 - 5/23/2012.  May 2011 Sweep: 4/28 - 5/25/2011.  Sweep periods (November, February, May and July). 

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