“NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” wins the week and the first quarter of 2012 and holds a 1.1 million Total Viewer season-to-date lead on #2 “ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.” For the quarter, “World News” decreased its year-to-year A25-54 demo gap with “NBC Nightly News” by -15%. It’s the closest the two shows have been in younger viewers in 4 years – since Q1 2008.

The “CBS Evening News” which saw its lowest Q1 on record in 2011, was the only broadcast to improve its numbers year-over-year, +3% in Total Viewers. Q1 2011 saw extensive coverage of the Arab spring and Japan earthquake and tsunami.

Note: “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” is excluded from the averages on Thursday and Friday due to NCAA basketball games. “World News” and “Nightly News” averages were based on 5 days.