SAWYER CONTINUES TO GAIN ON WILLIAMS

ABC’s Diane Sawyer narrowed the ratings gap between herself and NBC’s Brian Williams further last week. Sawyer attracted 2.04 million 25-54-year-old viewers last week versus 2.40 million who watched Williams. CBS’s Katie Couric drew just 1.61 million viewers in that demographic group. Among viewers overall, NBC Nightly News continued to lead with 8.05 million viewers, followed by ABC World News with 7.27 million and CBS Evening News with 5.16 million. All three nightly newscasts focused on coverage of the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia and its aftermath.