"ABC World News" Continues to Close Viewing Gaps with "NBC Nightly News"

"World News with Diane Sawyer" Cut Total Viewing Gap with NBC by Double-Digits for 5th Consecutive Week, Year-to-Year

In First Weeks of New Season, "ABC World News" Narrows Total Viewing Gap with NBC to Smallest Margin in 4 Years - Demo Gap to Smallest Margin in 3 Years

For the week of October 1, 2012, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.30 million Total Viewers and a 1.5 rating/6 share/1.81 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

For the 5th consecutive week, "World News" narrowed its Total Viewer margin by double-digits year-to-year with "NBC Nightly News" (-22% - 449,000 vs. 572,000) .

For the first two weeks of the season, "World News" has narrowed its gaps with "NBC Nightly News" among both Total Viewers (-59%) and Adults 25-54 (-4%). "World News" is posting its smallest Total Viewer (245,000) margin in 4 years and smallest in the news demo (234,000) in 3 years with the NBC program - since the 2008-09 and the 2009-10 seasons, respectively.

"ABC World News" outperformed the "CBS Evening News" by 1.56 million Total Viewers and 214,000 Adults 25-54.

NOTE : On Wednesday, "CBS Evening News" was retitled to "CBS-Evening-Nws" due to the first Presidential Debate. CBS' averages are based on 4 days (Mon-Tue, Thurs-Fri).

"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/DianeSawyer; facebook.com/WorldNews.

EVENING NEWS (Week of October 1, 2012)

Total Viewers

Adults 25-54

Households

ABC

7,297,000

1.5/6; 1,807,000

5.0/10

NBC

7,746,000

1.7/7; 2,076,000

5.3/10

CBS

5,733,000

1.3/5; 1,593,000

4.0/ 8

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 10/1/12, 9/24/12 & 10/3/11. Most Current - 2011-2012 Season (9/24 - 10/7/12) and 2011-2012 Season (9/19 - 10/2/11).