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ABC’s Diane Sawyer Makes Ratings History

May 29, 2014  •  Post A Comment

"World News" anchor Diane Sawyer and her ABC News program have made ratings history. Variety reports that the program won the May sweeps period in the key news demo of viewers 25-54, becoming the first evening news show hosted exclusively by a woman to win a sweeps month.

"Even as NBC’s 'Nightly News' opened up a bigger advantage in total viewers, it was ABC’s 'World News' that finished on top in adults 25-54 for the May sweep — the network’s first May victory in seven years and its first in any sweep month in more than six years (both with Charles Gibson as anchor)," the story reports.

Both NBC's "Nightly News" and CBS's "Evening News" declined from last year, and appear to be at new lows for a May sweeps period, the report notes. Meanwhile, the ABC program was up from a year ago and notched its best news demo rating in three years.

"All three broadcast newscasts were up in total viewers vs. last year, combining for 22.571 million viewers nightly — up 6% from 21.356 million a year ago, according to Nielsen," Variety notes. "But these gains were largely driven by viewers 55 and older, as the combined tune-in among adults 25-54 was up by less than 1% (5.549 million vs. 5.536 million)."

ABC’s “World News With Diane Sawyer” delivered 2.014 million adults 25-54, rising 10% from a year ago, and has won five of the past seven weeks in 25-54. NBC’s “Nightly News With Brian Williams” registered 1.972 million viewers in the demo, falling 7%. “CBS Evening News,” hosted by Scott Pelley, was third with 1.563 million, dipping 1%.

"The roughly 42,000-viewer advantage in the demo is the largest for ABC over NBC in any sweeps month since July 2007," the report notes.

In total viewers, “NBC Nightly News” was No. 1 with 8.430 million, followed by “ABC World News” with 7.671 million and “CBS Evening News” with 6.470 million.

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