"World News" Marks Closest Opening Week Performance with NBC in 5 Years in the Key News Demo

"World News" Ranks No. 1 in Adults 25-54 on Thursday

For the week of September 23, 2013, the start of the 2013-14 season, "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 7.234 million Total Viewers and a 1.5 rating/6 share/1.832 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

"ABC World News" was up over the year-ago premiere week in Adults 25-54 (+2% - 1.802 million for w/o 9/23/12). In fact, "World News" stood as the only evening news program to grow year to year in Adults 25-54, as the "CBS Evening News" (-12%) and "NBC Nightly News" (-3%) were both down. Further, "World News" has improved its news demo performance year to year for the last 4 weeks.

"World News" ranked No. 1 in Adults 25-54 on Thursday (9/26/13) , topping NBC's "Nightly News" by +147,000 demo viewers (1.781 million vs. 1.634 million) .

"World News" reduced its Adults 25-54 gap with "NBC Nightly News" versus the prior week by -39% (105,000 vs. 173,000) .

"World News" also slashed its Adults 25-54 margin by nearly in half with "NBC Nightly News" compared to premiere week last year (-48% - 105,000 vs. 200,000) to deliver its closest opening week performance with "Nightly News" in 5 years - since premiere week (w/o 9/22/08) of the 2008-09 season .

For the week, "ABC World News" bettered the "CBS Evening News" by 1.089 million Total Viewers and 384,000 Adults 25-54.

"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 September 23, 2013)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 9/23/13, 9/16/12 & 9/24/12. All averages based on regular telecasts.

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