During the 4th Quarter of 2011, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” Substantially Narrowed the Viewership Gaps with “NBC Nightly News” Year-to-Year Slashing Total Viewer Gap by 19% and Demo Gap by 25%.
For the Week of December 19, “World News” Cut the Total Viewing and Demo Gaps with “NBC Nightly News” — Marking the Smallest Gap, 87,000 Adults 25-54, in 2 Years.
On Wednesday, “ABC World News” was the #1 Evening Newscast Among Adults 25-54.
For the 4th Quarter 2011, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 7.78 million Total Viewers and a 1.7 rating/6 share/2.10 million among Adults 25-54. “World News” delivered increases over the year-ago quarter in both measures (4Q10 – 7.59 million and 2.09 million). In addition, “World News” was up over the previous quarter (3Q11) in both Total Viewers (+7%) and Adults 25-54 (+8%), posting its best quarter performance in 3 quarters – since 1Q11.
Compared to the year-ago quarter (4Q10), “World News” decreased its margins with “NBC Nightly News” by double-digits in both overall viewers (-19% – 937,000 vs. 1.15 million) and in the key adult news demo (-25% – 318,000 vs. 422,000), scoring its smallest news demo margin during a 4th quarter in 3 years – since 4Q08.
For the 2nd quarter in a row, “World News” narrowed its Adults 25-54 margin with “NBC Nightly News” versus the previous quarter (-22% – 318,000 vs. 409,000 for 3Q11), turning in its smallest news demo margin in 6 quarters – since 2Q10.
“World News” outperformed the “CBS Evening News” during 4Q11 by 1.60 million Total Viewers and by 309,000 Adults 25-54 viewers.
For the week of December 19, 2011, “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer” averaged 8.18 million Total Viewers and a 1.9 rating/6 share/2.24 million among Adults 25-54, according to Nielsen Media Research. Improving on the previous week by 5% in Total Viewers and by 11% in Adults 25-54 (7.78 million and 2.02 million, respectively, on w/o 12/12/11), “World News” delivered its 2nd-best performance of the season in the key adult news demo.
The ABC evening newscast built on the year-ago week in both Total Viewers (+3%) and Adults 25-54 (+5%), growing its overall audience year-to-year in 12 of 14 weeks this season. Additionally, “World News” stood as the only evening newscast to grow over the same week last year in Adults 25-54 (NBC was down -14%; CBS was down -8%).
On Wednesday (12/21/11), “ABC World News” was the No. 1 evening newscast in the key adult news demo outperforming “NBC Nightly News” by 15,000 Adults 25-54 (2.31 million vs. 2.16 million).
“World News” slashed its year-to-year gaps with “NBC Nightly News” among both Total Viewers (-70% – 459,000 vs. 1.53 million) and Adults 25-54 (-84% – 87,000 vs. 558,000), representing the 7th time in the last 8 weeks “World News” has narrowed the Total Viewing gap and the 8th time in 8 weeks that ABC has narrowed the demo gap.
In addition, for the 4th week in a row the ABC evening newscast cut its margins with “NBC Nightly News” among both Total Viewers (-53% – 459,000 vs. 970,000) and Adults 25-54 (-70% – 87,000 vs. 287,000) week-to-week, delivering the smallest news demo margin with the NBC program in over 2 years – since w/o 9/7/09.
“ABC World News” topped the “CBS Evening News” by 1.75 million Total Viewers and by 419,000 Adults 25-54, drawing its largest Total Viewer advantage in 6 weeks – since w/o 11/7/11.
Season to date, “World News” is up in both Total Viewers (+2%) and Adults 25-54 (+1%) compared to the same point last season. Additionally, “World News” has cut its season-to-date gaps with “NBC Nightly News” by double-digits in both Total Viewers (-19%) and Adults 25-54 (-25%), posting its smallest news demo margin (318,000) with the NBC program in 3 years – since the 2008-09 season.
Note: Due to the Christmas holiday, “World News” was re-titled “Wrld News Tonite” on Friday (12/23/11) and is excluded from the average. NBC “Nightly News” and CBS’ “Evening 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.
EVENING NEWS (4th Quarter, 2011)
|
|
Total Viewers |
Adults 25-54 |
Households |
|
|
|
|
|
|
ABC |
7,775,000 |
1.7/6; 2,100,000 |
5.3/10 |
|
NBC |
8,715,000 |
2.0/7; 2,418,000 |
5.8/11 |
|
CBS |
6,172,000 |
1.5/5; 1,791,000 |
4.2/ 8 |
EVENING NEWS (Week of December 19, 2011)
|
|
Total Viewers |
Adults 25-54 |
Households |
|
|
|
|
|
|
ABC |
8,182,000 |
1.9/6; 2,235,000 |
5.4/10 |
|
NBC |
8,641,000 |
1.9/7; 2,322,000 |
5.6/11 |
|
CBS |
6,428,000 |
1.5/5; 1,816,000 |
4.3/ 8 |
(Source: ABC – The Nielsen Company, NTI Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 Live + SD weeks of 12/19/11, 12/12/11 & 12/20/10. Most Current – 4Q11: 9/19/11 – 12/25/11. 3Q11: 6/27 – 9/18/11. 4Q11: 9/20/10 – 12/26/10. 2011-2012 Season (9/19 – 12/25/11) and 2010-2011 Season (9/20 – 12/26/10).
