Diane Sawyer is going out on top — or at least tied for No. 1 in the key demographic.
Last week — which is expected to be her last full week of ABC’s “World News” — Sawyer led in the 25-54 demo most important to news shows, tying NBC’s “Nightly News.” “Nightly News” won in total viewers and the 18-49 demo. CBS’s “Evening News” was third in all three metrics.
Also read: Diane Sawyer Gets Nostalgic for Final Person of the Week Segment (Video)
Sawyer will pass on the anchor desk to David Muir on Tuesday.
The ABC and NBC nightly newscasts both earned a 1.6 rating and 7 share in the 25-54 demo. ABC edged out NBC in viewers in that group, 1.918 million to 1.86 million. CBS had a 1.4 and 1.635 million in the 25-54 demo.
In total viewers, NBC led with 8.021 million to ABC’s 7.325 million and CBS’s 6.532 million.
Also read: Diane Sawyer on Why She’s Leaving ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’ (Video)
In the 18-49 demo, NBC won with a 1.1 rating (1.385 million viewers) to ABC’s 1.0 (1.31 million) and CBS’s .9 (1.147 million).
Sawyer has also led in the demo for 7 of past 8 weeks, and 13 of last 20, and led “World News” to demo wins for the 2nd quarter of the year.
NBC also has bragging points, however: “Nightly News” is the top evening newscast in total viewers and the 18-49 and 25-54 demos when you count back to the start of the 2013-14 season. It is also posting its biggest average total viewer audience (8.877 million) since the 2005-06 season and its largest lead over ABC since the 2011-12 season — averaging 950,000 more total viewers.