• by Wayne Friedman , December 29, 2009

ABC News has gained a bit from its first week of "ABC World News with Diane Sawyer," but so has broadcast news leader NBC.

For the three-day week of Dec. 21 (going into the Christmas weekend), the "World News" improved 6%, or 500,000 viewers, over its Nielsen season-to-date average. The show averaged 8.56 million total viewers, and 2.27 million adult 25-54 viewers, the key demographic for TV news advertisers.

On Monday, Dec. 21, Sawyer's first night after taking over for Charles Gibson, Sawyer posted 8.97 million total viewers and 2.41 million adult 25-54 viewers. This was about on par with Gibson's last performance, which reached 8.96 million total viewers in his last broadcast the previous Friday.

But NBC -- "The Nightly News with Brian Williams" -- gained as well, up 2% or 150,000 total viewers.

Now ABC trails broadcast news leader NBC by around 800,000 total viewers and 570,000 25-54 viewers. (A week ago, ABC trailed by 730,000 total viewers and 460,000 25-54 viewers). For the short holiday week, NBC was at 9.37 million total viewers for the week, and 2,840,000 25-54 viewers.

While ABC hasn't picked up ground on NBC, it has distanced itself from third-place finisher "The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric," which averaged 6,160,000 total viewers and 1,830,000 25-54 viewers. (The CBS show slipped a bit week-to-week -- 30,000 total viewers and 60,000 25-54 viewers.)

The ABC and CBS programs are now separated by 2.4 million total viewers -- a 4% weekly increase. ABC says this is its largest advantage over CBS in 11 months. Compared to the week last year, ABC's total viewing lead over CBS grew 24% larger.