"World News with Diane Sawyer" Cuts Total Viewer Gap with NBC by 11% and Slashes Gap Among Adults 25-54 By More Than Half Compared to the Previous Week

"ABC World News" Most-Watched Newscast in Key News Demo on Thursday Outperforming NBC

ABC Scores Smallest Gap Among Adults 18-49 with NBC in 6 Months - 57,000 Viewers

"ABC World News" Growing Overall Audience While "NBC Nightly News" Declines Season-to-Date - Viewing Gaps Between the Two Newscasts Smallest in 4 Years

For the week of March 11, 2013, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.19 million Total Viewers and a 1.6 rating/7 share/1.87 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

"World News" delivered the No. 1 telecast on Thursday (3/14/13) in Adults 25-54, outperforming NBC's "Nightly News" by +197,000 demo viewers (2.209 million vs. 2.012 million) .

"World News" cut its week-to-week Total Viewer gap with "NBC Nightly News" by -11% (876,000 vs. 989,000) , while decreasing its news demo margin by more than half (-51%; 210,000 vs. 426,000). Among Adults 18-49, "World News" slashed more than three-quarters of the gap with the NBC program (-81% - 57,000 vs. 309,000), posting its smallest Adults 18-49 margin with "Nightly News" in more than 6 months - since w/o 8/27/12.

Compared to the year-ago week, "World News" decreased its margins with "NBC Nightly News" in Adults 25-54 (-1% - 210,000 vs. 213,000), decreasing its year-to-year news demo gap with "Nightly News" for the last 6 of the last 7 weeks.

Season-to-date, "World News" has increased its Total Viewing audience (+2%) compared to the same point last season, drawing its most-watched season in 2 years - since the 2010-11 season. "World News" narrowed its margins by double-digits among both Total Viewers (-27%) and Adults 25-54 (-11%) with "NBC Nightly News" to post its smallest gaps (801,000 and 337,000, respectively) with the NBC program in 4 years- since the 2008-09 season.

For the week, "ABC World News" outpaced "CBS Evening News" by 790,000 Total Viewers and by 93,000 Adults 25-54.

Note : For the first week of Daylight Saving Time, the 6:30p-7p Households Using Television (HUT) levels were down -7% week to week, while the People Using Television (PUT) levels among Adults 25-54 were down -8%.

RELATED : ABC News Launches #MyWorldNewsStory Campaign RELATED : "GMA" #1 for Week of March 4th

"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 March 11, 2013)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 3/11/13, 3/4/13 & 3/12/12. Most Current - 2012-2013 Season (9/24/12 - 3/17/13) and 2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 - 3/11/12). All averages based on regular telecasts.