ABC cashes in on exclusive Palin interview

NEW YORK, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Thanks to an exclusive interview with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, ABC News has won two coveted time slots, U.S. ratings show.

Nielsen Media Research said ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson" won its time slot with a 2.5 rating/10 share among adults age 18-49 Thursday, while "Nightline" used the Palin interview to rake in a 4.2 rating/10 share among the same group, The Hollywood Reporter said Friday.

Final ratings tallies showed the rare Palin interview drew an average of 9.7 million viewers to "World News," the series' highest viewership since February.

The high ratings helped "World News" easily beat out rival "NBC Nightly News" Thursday and earned an impressive victory for "Nightline" over "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," the Reporter said.

Streaming coverage of the Palin interview available on ABC News Web site was watched 600,000 times and the media group's site was viewed 3 million times the day of the exclusive coverage.