With Dugard, ABC News Notches a Rare Win

ABC News got one more boost from its exclusive interview with the kidnapping victim Jaycee Lee Dugard: it beat NBC in the evening news competition last Thursday.

That competition has been dominated for years by NBC. A win by ABC, even on a daily basis, has been so rare that the network sent out an announcement on Tuesday saying that — thanks to a preview of the extensive interview with Ms. Dugard — it had managed to edge ahead of NBC’s “Nightly News.”

That interview, conducted by Diane Sawyer, was shown in its entirety in a two-hour special Sunday night that lifted ABC to a dominant performance in prime time. (It will be repeated at 9 p.m. Saturday.)

Portions of the interview were enough to alter the usual evening newscast standing Thursday, with ABC winning by 106,000 viewers. But it did not upend the weekly standings. NBC won as usual, though ABC did close the margin of NBC’s victory.

NBC won the week by 349,000 viewers, down from 631,000 the week before. NBC had a bigger margin in the audience used to sell to news advertisers, viewers between the ages of 25 and 54. There, NBC won by 374,000, down from 613,000 the previous week.

It was the closest ABC has gotten to first place for a week since last August.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Nearly 15 Million Tune in for Jaycee Dugard Interview

ABC News scored a ratings coup Sunday night thanks to Diane Sawyer’s interview of the kidnapping victim Jaycee Lee Dugard. The two-hour special on ABC attracted almost 15 million viewers.

That was a bigger audience than the other networks combined between 9 and 11 p.m. Sunday night, and second only to last Tuesday’s edition of “America’s Got Talent” as the most-watched show of the week. The ABC special had 14.8 million viewers; “America’s Got Talent” reached 15.7 million.

Ms. Dugard discussed for the first time her kidnapping at age 11 and the 18 years she was held captive by Phillip Garrido, who also fathered two daughters with Ms. Dugard.

Ms. Sawyer also opened a Twitter handle so that she could send messages live throughout the program, and included questions from viewers during the interview.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.