So far so good
for ABC's Sawyer
Viewership for 'World News' grows week-to-week
By Diego Vasquez
Jan 6, 2010
In her first two weeks as anchor of ABC's "World News," Diane Sawyer is generating greater interest than her predecessor, though she's nowhere near catching up to longtime leader NBC.
During her abbreviated second week, with the New Year's holiday preempting some of the networks' newscasts, Sawyer's telecast averaged 8.69 million total viewers and a 1.9 adults 25-54 rating.
Both were up from her first-week tallies of 8.56 million and a 1.8, though again that was for an abbreviated week. The Christmas holiday prompted Nielsen to base measurements on Monday through Wednesday of that week.
Still, it's a solid start for ABC. In Sawyer's first week, "World News" grew by 70,000 from Charles Gibson's final week as anchor, and it increased 130,000 from Sawyer's first to her second week in the seat.
Last week was also up 7 percent over the same week last year, making it the only newscast to grow versus 2008.
Call that the warmup. The real test for Sawyer will be in the coming weeks, when HUTs return to their pre-holiday levels and viewers return to their regular TV viewing habits.
Sawyer could get a slight bounce from sampling over the next few weeks, though nothing like what Katie Couric earned during her much-hyped launch three years ago.
ABC has taken a low-key approach to the transition, bringing Sawyer in during a holiday week and giving little fanfare to Gibson's exit.
The greater question in the long term may not be whether Sawyer can overtake NBC's Brian Williams, who was about 730,000 ahead of ABC in her first two weeks. Really it's whether ABC can continue to hold off CBS, which could benefit from viewer churn in the wake of Gibson's retirement.
Couric's broadcast was up by half a million last week compared to Sawyer's first week. But she was still some 2 million behind the ABC telecast.
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