ABC's World News has held steady under new anchor Diane Sawyer.

In its first three days on the air last week, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer averaged 8.6 million total viewers, up six percent from the newscast's season-to-date average under Sawyer's predecessor Charles Gibson.

Sawyer also increased the viewership gap over CBS' third-ranked Evening News with Katie Couric (6.2 million) to its largest size in 11 months.

NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams (9.4 million) remains the broadcast news leader.

Thursday and Friday were excluded from the networks' tallies because of the Christmas holiday and preemptions.