"ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" Closes Total Viewing and Demo Gaps with "NBC Nightly News" Week-to-Week - Delivering Smallest Demo Margin in 6 Months

Year-to-Year, "ABC World News" Slashes Demo Gap with "NBC Nightly News" by 78%

"ABC World News" Stands as the #1 Evening Newscast Among Adults 25-54 on Wednesday

For the week of June 11, 2012, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 6.86 million Total Viewers and a 1.5 rating/6 share/1.79 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research. "World News" was up week-to-week in both Total Viewers (+2%) and Adults 25-54 (+5%) - 6.71 million and 1.70 million on w/o 6/4/12.

For the 2nd week in a row, "World News" narrowed its week-to-week margins with "NBC Nightly News" in both Total Viewers (-5% - 794,000 vs. 834,000) and Adults 25-54 (-64% - 125,000 vs. 349,000). In fact, the ABC newscast turned in its smallest demo margin with "Nightly News" in nearly 6 months (since w/o 12/19/11) and 2nd smallest Adults 25-54 gap overall this season.

"ABC World News" ranked as the No. 1 evening newscast in Adults 25-54 on Wednesday (6/13/12), outdrawing "NBC Nightly News" by 223,000 viewers (1.923 million vs. 1.700 million).

Year-to-year, "ABC World News" slashed its news demo gap with "NBC Nightly News" by more than three-quarters (-78% - 125,000 vs. 562,000). "NBC Nightly News" saw a -21% drop off among Adults 25-54 from its year-ago performance. Further, "World News" has cut the demo gap with "Nightly News" by double-digits in 14 of the last 15 weeks.

Season-to-date, "World News" is narrowing its gaps with "NBC Nightly News" in both Total Viewers (-5%) and Adults 25-54 (-27%), posting its smallest Total Viewer (1.03 million) and news demo margins (351,000) with the NBC program in 3 years - since the 2008-09 season.

"World News" outdrew the "CBS Evening News" by 1.47 million Total Viewers and by 260,000 Adults 25-54.

Note : Due to the NBA Finals Game 1 on Tues (6/12) and Game 2 on Thurs (6/14), "World News" was retitled "Wrld News Tonite" and was excluded from the average. In addition, "Nightly News" retitled their program "NBC-Nitely-News" on Monday, Thursday, and Friday - those days were excluded from their average. ABC's weekly average was based on three days (Mon, Wed and Fri), NBC's weekly average was based on two days (Tues and Wed) and CBS's weekly average was based on five 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. Follow Diane Sawyer and the "World News" team online: @DianeSawyer; @ABCWorldNews; facebook.com/WorldNews.

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EVENING NEWS (Week of June 11, 2012)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 6/11/12, 6/4/12 & 6/13/11. Most Current - 2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 - 6/17/12) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20/11 - 6/17/11).