Marks Largest Week-to-Week Gain in Demo Audience Among Evening Newscasts. “World News” Closes Demo Gap with NBC to Smallest Margin in 5 Months.“World News” Increases Total Viewing and Demo Lead Over CBS Week to Week and Year to Year.
For the week of April 5th, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 7.27 million Total Viewers and a 1.6/7 among Adults 25-54 according to Nielsen Media Research. “World News” grew its demo audience by 8% and its Total Viewing audience by 3% week to week. The program displayed the largest weekly demo gain of the three evening newscasts.
For the fourth straight week, “World News” narrowed the demo gap with “NBC Nightly News.” The weekly gap among Adults 25-54 was 3% smaller, marking the smallest weekly demo gap since November. Year to Year, “World News” closed the Total Viewing gap by 7%.
Versus the same week last year, “World News’” advantage among Total Viewers over “CBS Evening News” was 31% larger, and its lead among Adults 25-54 increased by 10%. Compared to the previous week, “World News’” leads among Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 were also larger by 10% and 30%, respectively. This marks ABC’s largest weekly demo and Total Viewing leads over CBS in two months (wk of 2/8/10).
On Tuesday, April 6, Diane Sawyer anchored “World News” from West Virginia to cover the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine. Sawyer interviewed Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, and “World News” continued its coverage throughout the week, with David Muir and David Kerley reporting from there. Additionally, “World News” has comprehensive coverage of Justice Stevens’ announcement that he will retire from the Supreme Court.
Jon Banner is the executive producer of “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.”
EVENING NEWS (Week of April 5, 2010)
Total Viewers
Adults 25-54
Households
ABC
7,270,000
1.6/7; 2,040,000
4.9/10
NBC
8,050,000
1.9/8; 2,400,000
5.4/11
CBS
5,160,000
1.3/5; 1,610,000
3.6/7
Source: ABC – The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 4/5/10, 3/29/10 & 4/6/09.
