ABC’s season opener of The Bachelor: On the Wings of Love from 8-10pm drew an average audience of 9.5 million viewers and a 3.3/8 in Adults 18-49, against original competition that included Fox’s Fiesta Bowl and the return of NBC’s Heroes.
In fact head to head, The Bachelor premiere topped the 2-hour return of NBC’s Heroes by 4.6 million viewers and by 50% in Adults 18-49 (4.9 million and 2.2/5).
The Bachelor was up over its season premiere on the year-ago evening in both Total Viewers (+9%) and in Adults 18-49 (+6%), registering its most-watched opener for the franchise since April ’07 (4 seasons ago) and its highest young adult number since September ’07 (3 seasons ago). In fact it was the 2nd-most-watched opener for the show in its last 9 seasons – since April ’04.
ABC’s The Bachelor stood as the TV’s #1 series telecast on Monday with Adults 18-34 (3.1/9) and across all key Women demos (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).
(source: data and information provided by ABC)