WILL ABC’S NEWSCAST TOPPLE NBC’S?

ABC World News with Diane Sawyer beat NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams on two nights, Monday and Friday, last week but remained in second place for the week with an average of about a half million fewer viewers, TVNewser.com reported on Tuesday, citing latest Nielsen figures. (The ABC newscast did not air on Thursday.) For the week, the NBC newscast averaged 7.5 million viewers, while ABC’s averaged 7.0 million. The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley placed third with 5.7 million, up 9 percent from a year ago. In primetime, ABC’s Thursday and Sunday coverage of the NBA finals helped lift the network into first place for the week among 18-49-year-old viewers and a close second among total adults. CBS, which drew the most total viewers for the week was dead last — behind even The CW and Univision — among younger viewers. The networks lined up like this: CBS: an average 4.0 household rating and a 7 share (4.5 million viewers); ABC: 3.8/7 (4.4 million); NBC: 3.66 (4.1 million); Fox: 2.1/4 (2.4 million).