Ratings Report for Royal Wedding Coverage Across the ABC Television Network
ABC TELEVISION NETWORK ATTRACTED NEARLY 49 MILLION VIEWERS FOR ROYAL WEDDING COVERAGE ON FRIDAY, APRIL 29 AND IN PRIMETIME LEADING UP TO WORLDWIDE EVENT
ABC News' Royal Wedding Coverage from 7:00-9:00 a.m. Attracted 8.65 Million Viewers,
Marking ABC's Most Watched Morning Telecast in Nearly 20 Years
"World News with Diane Sawyer" was the No. 1 Evening Newscast on Friday, April 29
ABCNews.com Experienced Its Largest Day for Total Traffic Since 2008 Election Day
ABC News Radio Provided Live Reporting to 2,000 Affiliates with an Audience Reach of 65 Million
The ABC Television Network attracted over 48.94 million viewers for Royal Wedding coverage on Friday, April 29 and in primetime leading up the worldwide event, according to Nielsen Media Research. ABC News provided viewers with an all-access pass to the Royal Wedding on the ABC Television Network and across a diverse group of digital platforms. Combined with special programming from "The View" on the day of the Royal Wedding, ABC's television coverage was watched by nearly 16.6% of all viewers in the U.S. In addition, ABC reached 16.48 million Adults
18-49, as well as 20.54 million Adults 25-54.
Live Royal Wedding Coverage
· In its regular 7:00-9:00 a.m. time period, ABC's "Good Morning America," anchored live by Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters, covering the Royal Wedding from Buckingham Palace, attracted 8.65 million Total Viewers and a 2.6 rating/3.28 million in Adults 25-54, marking the ABC morning news program's most-watched telecast in nearly 20 years - since at least September of 1991, pre-dating Nielsen's electronic database. Sawyer and Walters were joined by "GMA" co-anchor Robin Roberts live from Westminster Abby.
· "GMA" also scored its strongest Adults 25-54 performance in 6 1/2 years (since 11/3/04) and 3rd-highest overall in the adult news demo since at least September 1991. Further, "GMA" saw its largest Adults 25-54 Friday audience since at least September 1991.
· Beginning at 4:00 a.m., ET, ABC News had reached 4.2 million viewers and continued to build on that audience throughout the morning.
· During its live morning coverage, ABC News set itself apart from the competition with its all-star team of anchors, correspondents and special Royal contributors including Katie Nicholl, Tina Brown, Colleen Harris, India Hicks, Robert Lacey, Tim Gunn, and Duncan Larcombe.
Special Editions of "20/20"
ABC News aired three special editions of "20/20" in primetime over four hours in the two weeks leading up to the Royal Wedding:
· Friday, April 29, 2011 -- Head to head in the time-slot, "20/20" outperformed NBC's "Dateline" by 1.9 million viewers (6.8 million vs. 4.9 million) and by 33% in Adults 18-49 (1.6/5 vs. 1.2/4). From its first hour to its second hour, "20/20" saw its audience grow in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, ranking No. 1 in the 10 o'clock hour in the key young adult demo.
· Thursday, April 28, 2011 -- Hosted by Elizabeth Vargas and Chris Cuomo, "20/20" attracted 7.0 million viewers and a 1.4 rating, 4 share in Adults 18-49, delivering the Net's largest audience in the hour in 5 weeks. In addition, the ABC newsmagazine more than doubled the performance of NBC's comedies in the hour ("Community"/"The Office") in Total Viewers (7.0 million vs. 3.2 million).
Note: Thursday's "20/20" outperformed NBC's Wednesday "Dateline" (7.0 million vs. 5.2 million).
· Monday, April 18, 2011 -- Anchored by Barbara Walters, "20/20" beat NBC's original "Law & Order: Los Angeles" by an impressive 2.4 million viewers (7.5 million vs. 5.1 million) and by 55% in Adults 18-49 (1.7/4 vs. 1.1/3).
World News with Diane Sawyer
· On Friday (4/29/11), with Diane Sawyer anchoring coverage of Prince William and Catherine Middleton's wedding from London, ABC's "World News" was the No. 1 evening newscast, outdrawing NBC's "Nightly News" by 236,000 Total Viewers (7.659 million vs. 7.423 million).
ABC News Digital
· On Friday, April 29, ABCNews.com experienced tremendous traffic (20MM+ page views) as viewers tuned in to all-digital properties for real time coverage of the Royal Wedding.
· Friday marked one of the most trafficked days (3MM+ unique users) for the site in its history - only the coverage of the death of Osama bin Laden, the 2009 Presidential Inauguration and Election Day 2008 were larger.
· ABC News Digital presented live network anchored coverage on ABCNews.com, the ABC News iPhone and iPad apps, 7 owned station sites, over 50 affiliate sites, Yahoo, Facebook and Hulu, as unprecedented millions of viewers tuned in for this historic, worldwide event. 1.6 million live-streams were watched across ABCNews.com, Yahoo, Hulu, mobile services, Facebook and affiliates.
· In addition to live streamed coverage, some of the most popular stories and features included - "In Photos: The Royal Wedding," "Royal Wedding in 60 Seconds," and "Royal Wedding: William and Kate's Balcony Kiss."
ABC News Radio
· ABC News Radio's four-hour, live anchored coverage was offered to 2,000 affiliates with an audience reach of 65 million people.
· Radio coverage was anchored by ABC News Radio Correspondents Aaron Katersky outside Buckingham Palace, Tom Rivers outside Westminster Abbey and Cheri Preston in New York anchored coverage from 5:00-9:00 a.m., ET. Linda Albin reported from London. Contributors included Jane Green, author of the recently released ABC News eBook "A MODERN FAIRY TALE." In addition, ABC News Radio provided affiliates with four one-minute reports on the Royal Wedding starting at 5:00 a.m., ET.
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