ABC WORLD NEWS WITH DIANE SAWYER Closing In On Ratings Gap

For the week of September 24, 2012, the start of the 2012-13 season, ABC WORLD NEWS WITH Diane Sawyer averaged 7.39 million Total Viewers and a 1.5 rating/6 share/1.80 million in Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research.

“ABC World News” was up week to week in both Total Viewers (+1%) and Adults 25-54 (+2%) – 7.32 million and 1.77 million, respectively, on w/o 9/17/12.  “World News” stood as the only evening news program to grow in both measures over the prior week, as the “CBS Evening News” was mixed (+5%/-1%) and “NBC Nightly News” was down (-5%/-4%). Further, “World News” has increased its Total Viewer count week to week in 6 of the past 7 weeks.

In addition, “World News” was up over the year-ago week by +2% in Total Viewers (7.27 million – w/o 9/19/11) to post its most-watched premiere week in 4 years – since the opening week of the 2008-09 season.   
 
“World News” ranked as the most-watched evening newscast twice during premiere week in Total Viewers, topping NBC’s “Nightly News” by +129,000 on Tuesday (7.935 million vs. 7.806,000 – 9/25/12) and by +587,000 on Friday (6.756 million vs. 6.169 million – 9/28/12).  This marks the first time in over 1 year that “World News” beat the NBC program twice in Total Viewers during the course of the week (regular telecasts) – since w/o 8/15/11.  In addition, “World News” finished No. 1 in Adults 25-54 on Friday, beating the NBC program by +74,000 demo viewers (1.693 million vs. 1.619 million).
 
“World News” slashed nearly all of its Total Viewer gap with “NBC Nightly News” versus the prior week to only 42,000 viewers (-92% - 508,000 on w/o 9/17/12) to deliver its closest overall viewer performance in 3 years – since w/o 9/7/09.  In addition, “World News” narrowed its week-to-week Adults 25-54 margin by double digits (-37% - 200,000 vs. 316,000).   
 
“World News” also slashed its Total Viewers margin with “NBC Nightly News” versus premiere week last year (-94% - 42,000 vs. 699,000), while narrowing its Adults 25-54 margin by -10% (200,000 vs. 222,000).
 
“ABC World News” bettered the “CBS Evening News” by 1.24 million Total Viewers and 157,000 Adults 25-54.   

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