Business

Good evening news

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The Royal Wedding, the killing of Osama bin Laden and Japan’s near-nuclear meltdown drove TV viewers to do the almost unthinkable: watch the evening news.

After years of sinking ratings, the network evening broadcasts added viewers in the second quarter — the first time in a decade that all three posted a quarterly year-over-year audience gain. NBC, ABC and CBS combined added some 1.9 million evening news viewers in the quarter, for a total of 21.7 million viewers.

The ratings reversal is striking given that the newscasts have been bleeding viewers for decades to 24-hour cable news, while the traditional network news format is under siege.

“This is amazing for a non-political year,” said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media, referring to a rare ratings surge despite the absence of a presidential or mid-term election.

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, the leader with 8.6 million viewers, saw the biggest boost, drawing 876,000 new viewers for a gain of 12 percent. ABC World News with Diane Sawyer added 655,000, a 9 percent gain for 7.6 million total viewers.

The CBS Evening News, anchored the first six weeks by Katie Couric and the last six by replacement Scott Pelley, added 393,000 viewers, an 8 percent increase, bringing its total to 5.6 million.

Analysts said dramatic news coverage spanning a wide range of topics all worked to attract viewers.

“This year so far has been exceptional for major news stories, appealing to a wide demographic range,” said TV news analyst Andrew Tyndall. “The first quarter saw Gabrielle Giffords [shooting], Tahrir Square and Fukushima, so 2011 is turning out to be a heavy year for news altogether.”

By comparison, the big story last year was confined to the BP oil spill.

Still, no one is popping the champagne corks yet. Experts predict the increase is likely nothing more than a blip.

“If audiences continue to grow even during a silly, soft news summer, that would be evidence that the newscasts themselves are making a difference rather than the news environment,” Tyndall said.