For the first time in more than four years, ABC's World
News with Diane Sawyer beat NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams in
the weekly adults 25-54 demo, according to Nielsen data.
World News averaged 1.917 million viewers in the key
demo for the week of July 22, which saw the birth of the royal baby, topping
NBC by 38,000 viewers. It was its first weekly demo win in 243 weeks and
largest margin of victory since October 2008.
In total viewers, Nightly News still came out on top,
averaging 7.536 million total viewers to World News' 7.287 million. CBS
Evening News drew 5.954 million viewers.
Compared to the same week last year, which included the run-up to the London Olympics, ABC's was
the only newscast to grow, up 1% in total viewers and flat in the demo, while
CBS decreased 1%/11% and NBC declined 12%/23%.
