"ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" Grows Overall Audience Year-to-Year and Only Newscast to Grow Week-to-Week

"ABC World News" Cuts Total Viewing Gap with "NBC Nightly News" in 14 of the Last 15 Weeks

Season-to-Date, ABC Has Slashed Total Viewing Gap with NBC to Smallest in 5 Years and Demo Gap to Smallest in 4 Years

For the week of April 8, 2013, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.47 million Total Viewers and a 1.6 rating/7 share/1.87 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research. "World News" was up over the previous week in Total Viewers (+1%, 7.40 million on w/o 4/1/13), standing as the only evening newscast to grow week-to-week ("CBS Evening News" was down -3% and "NBC Nightly News" was off by -1%)

For the 4th week in a row, "World News" improved on its year-ago Total Viewer count (+4%, 7.20 million on w/o 4/9/12). In fact, "World News" has increased its overall audience year-to-year in 15 of the last 16 weeks.

"World News" closed in on "NBC Nightly News" in Total Viewers by double-digits both week-to-week (-14%, 837,000 vs. 974,000) and year-to-year (-13%, 837,000 vs. 957,000). "World News" has narrowed its year-ago Total Viewer gaps with the NBC newscast in 14 of the last 15 weeks.

Season-to-date, "World News" has increased its Total Viewing audience (+3%) 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 (-28%) and Adults 25-54 (-13%) with "NBC Nightly News" to post its smallest Total Viewer gap (788,000) with the NBC program in 5 years and narrowest demo margin (323,000) in 4 years - since the 2007-08 and the 2008-09 seasons, respectively.

For the week, "ABC World News" beat the "CBS Evening News" by 1.22 million Total Viewers and by 220,000 Adults 25-54.

Note : Due to NCAA Basketball Final on Monday (4/8/13), "Evening News" was re-titled "CBS-Evening-Nws;" ratings were excluded from the average. "Evening News" is based on 4 days (Tues-Fri). George Stephanopoulos anchored "World News" on Monday and Tuesday.

"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 April 8, 2013)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 4/8/13, 4/1/13 & 4/9/12. Most Current - 2012-2013 Season (9/24/12 - 4/14/13) and 2011-2012 Season (9/19/11 - 4/8/12). All averages based on regular telecasts.