CHARLIE Gibson – who ABC brass initially passed over for the top anchor job – is officially the evening news king, winning the most viewers of all the newscasts for 2007.

For the year, Gibson’s “World News Tonight” snared an average of 8.4 million viewers, slightly edging out NBC’s Brian Williams’ 8.3 million viewers. On CBS, Katie Couric trailed both with only 6.4 million viewers.

Gibson also handily beat Williams and Couric with the all-important adults 25-54 demographic (2.6 million).

It is the first time the ABC newscast has won the cut-throat total viewers ratings race since 1996.