Diane Sawyer’s debut appears to lift ‘World News’

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Diane Sawyer’s debut as anchor of ABC’s “World News” appeared to have boosted viewership of the evening newscast, even during a slow holiday week. According to early Nielsen data, an average of 8.934 million people tuned into ABC from 6:30 to 7 p.m. Monday night. That’s only a rough indication of the true viewership of “World News,” because not every station carries the broadcast during that time period. But it’s larger than the newscast’s season-to-date average of 8 million viewers and this season’s Monday average of 8.41 million viewers.

By comparison, 9.305 million viewers tuned into NBC during the time period and 5.946 million people watched CBS. Final Nielsen data will be available next week.

Sawyer’s first official broadcast as “World News” anchor featured an exclusive interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

-- Matea Gold