"ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" Slashes Viewing Gaps with NBC Week-to-Week - Cutting Total Viewer Gap by 48% and Demo Gap by 53%

Year-to-Year, ABC Narrows Margins with NBC by 15% in Total Viewers and by 67% in the Demo

"ABC World News" Stands as Only Evening Newscast to Grow Total Viewing Audience, Week-to-Week - Improves the Most in Key Demo

For the week of July 16, 2012, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.32 million Total Viewers and a 1.6 rating/6 share/1.93 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research. Growing week-to-week by 4% in Total Viewers and by 11% in Adults 25-54 (7.01 million and 1.77 million Adults 25-54) , "World News" drew its largest overall audience in 2 months and best news demo performance in 4 months - since w/o 5/7 and w/o 3/5/12, respectively. In addition, "World News" stood as the only evening newscast to grow week-to-week in Total Viewers, while improving the most in Adults 25-54 compared to "NBC Nightly News" (-1%/+1%) and "CBS Evening News" (-1%/+1%).

"World News" decreased its week-to-week margins with "NBC Nightly News" in half in both Total Viewers (-48% - 416,000 vs. 797,000) and Adults 25-54 (-53% - 159,000 vs. 339,000), turning in its 3rd smallest gaps with the NBC program this season.

"World News" cut its year-ago gaps with "NBC Nightly News" by double-digits in both Total Viewers (-15% - 416,000 vs. 497,000) and Adults 25-54 (-67% - 159,000 vs. 487,000). "World News" has cut its year-to-year demo gap with "Nightly News" for the 7th week in a row and for the 19th time of the last 20 weeks

Season-to-date, "World News" is narrowing its gaps with "NBC Nightly News" in both Total Viewers (-6%) and Adults 25-54 (-29%), delivering its smallest Total Viewer (977,000) and news demo margins (345,000) with the NBC program in 3 years - since the 2008-09 season.

"World News" outperformed the "CBS Evening News" by 1.61 million Total Viewers and by 223,000 Adults 25-54, posting its largest Total Viewer advantage in 8 weeks - since w/o 5/21/12.

"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.

• ALSO SEE : "This Week" Ranks as the #1 Public Affairs Program in Key Demo, Outperforming "Meet the Press" and "Face the Nation"
• ALSO SEE : "GMA" Takes Top Spot - Marks Largest Total Viewing Win Over "Today" in 17 Years
• ALSO SEE : "Nightline" #1 Program in Late-night Across All Key Target Demos

EVENING NEWS (Week of July 16, 2012)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 7/16/12, 7/9/12 & 7/18/11. Most Current - 2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 - 7/22/12) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20/11 - 7/24/11).