"World News" Delivers Top Newscast in the Demo for Second Friday in a Row

"World News" Has Demo Growth Year-to-Year in Eight of the Last Nine Weeks

"World News" is the Only Broadcast to Improve in the Demo for This Season (+4%)

Season-to-Date, "World News" Delivers its Closest Demo Performance to "Nightly News" in Six Years

For the week of March 17, 2014, " ABC World News with Diane Sawyer" averaged 8.264 million Total Viewers and a 1.7 rating/7 share/2.087 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research. For the 3rd consecutive week, "World News" improved on the year-earlier week in both Total Viewers (+5%) and Adults 25-54 (+5%) - 7.847 million and 1.984 million, respectively, on w/o 3/18/13. In fact, the ABC evening newscast has turned in year-to-year news demo growth in 8 of the last 9 weeks

"World News" was also up by 3% in Total Viewers from the prior week (8.264 million vs. 8.059 million on w/o 3/10/14), posting week-to-week improvement for the 3rd time in the last 4 weeks.

"World News" ranked No. 1 in Adults 25-54 for the 2nd straight Friday (3/21/13), leading "NBC Nightly News" on the night by +31,000 demo viewers (1.797 million vs. 1.766 million).

Season to date, "World News" is up versus the same point last season in both Total Viewers (+3%) and Adults 25-54 (+4%), delivering its most-watched season in 5 years and best news demo number in 3 years - since the 2008-09 and the 2010-11 seasons, respectively. "World News" also stands as the only evening newscast to improve its demo performance from the previous season compared to "CBS Evening News" (-5%) and "NBC Nightly News" (flat).

In addition, "World News" is narrowing its season margin with "NBC Nightly News" in Adults 25-54 by double digits (-23% - 254,000 vs. 330,000) compared to its season margin from the same point last year. In fact, cutting its Adults 25-54 gap for the 4th consecutive season, "World News" is seeing its closest news demo performance with the NBC program in 6 years - since the 2007-08 season.

"World News" has nearly doubled its Adults 25-54 lead over "CBS Evening News" versus its year-ago season lead (+99% - 352,000 vs. 177,000).

For the week, "ABC World News" beat the "CBS Evening News" by 1.150 million Total Viewers and by 272,000 Adults 25-54.

Note: "CBS Evening News" aired with low coverage and was broken out on Thu 3/20/14 (75%) and Fri 3/21/14 (74%) due to NCAA Basketball and was retitled "CBS-Evening-Nws;" ratings for both days are excluded from the average. "CBS Evening News" averages are based on 3 days (Mon-Wed), while "World News" and "Nightly News" are based on 5 days.

"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 17, 2014)

Source: The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 3/17/14, 3/10/14 and 3/18/13. Most Current: 2013-2014 Season (9/23/13 - 3/23/14) and 2012-2013 Season (9/24/12 - 3/24/13).

- ABC -