ABC Grows its Sunday Numbers in Viewers and Young Adults. “Home Edition” Builds on its Week-Ago Opener in Viewers, Key Adults and Kids.
“Housewives” Stands as Sunday’s No. 1 Non-Sports TV Show In Adults 18-49, and Achieves 9-Month Highs with Key Women.
Up from its Season Premiere, “Brothers & Sisters” Pulls its Strongest Young Adult Numbers Since Early January and Best with Women 18-34 Since Early December.
Sunday Night (7:00-11:00 p.m.)
Despite facing heavy sports-driven competition on the evening, ABC was up over the prior week’s season premiere Sunday in both Total Viewers (+3% – 9.5 million vs. 9.2 million) and Adults 18-49 (+4% – 2.9/8 vs. 2.8/7).
“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (8:00-9:00 p.m.)
Building on its lead-in at 8:00 p.m., ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” grew from its week-ago season opener with Total Viewers (8.6 million vs. 8.5 million), Adults 18-34, Adults 25-54 and Kids 2-11.
“Desperate Housewives” (9:00-10:00 p.m.)
Against stiff competition on the night, including another big “Sunday Night Football” contest on NBC (Chicago Bears-NY Giants), a sports-fueled Fox with an NFL primetime overrun and CBS with its time period premiere of “Undercover Boss” and season opener of “CSI: Miami,” ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” registered as Sunday’s No. 1 non-sports television program in Adults 18-49 (4.3/10). “Housewives” also finished No. 1 against its non-sports competition in its 9 o’clock time slot in Adults 18-49, beating CBS’ slot premiere of “Undercover Boss” by 8% (4.0/9) and Fox’s comedies by 26% (“Family Guy”/”American Dad” = 3.4/8). For the 2nd week in a row, Housewives stood as Sunday’s No. 1 TV program overall across all key Women demos (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).
“Housewives” retained all of its week-earlier season premiere audience in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, while building on its premiere among key Women (W18-34/W18-49). In fact with Women 18-34 and Women 18-49, the show hit its highest ratings in 9 months – since 1/3/10.
“Brothers & Sisters” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
Opposite the end of the NFL game, ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters” finished as the No. 1 non-sports program in the 10 o’clock hour, beating CBS’ season premiere of “CSI: Miami” by strong margins in Adults 18-34 (+18% – 2.6/7 vs. 2.2/6) and among key Women demos: W18-34 (+42% – 3.7/10 vs. 2.6/7) and W18-49 (+13% – 4.3/11 vs. 3.8/10).
Despite facing increased drama competition in the time period, “Brothers & Sisters” was up over its week-ago season premiere in Adults 18-49, Adults 18-34 and Women 18-34. In fact the ABC drama posted its highest young adult numbers since January and its top Women 18-34 number since December – since 1/10/10 and 12/6/09, respectively.
A note about increasing DVR penetration and year-to-year rating comparisons: Year-to-year rating comparisons based on the Live + Same Day data stream are distorted by the level of DVR penetration in the Nielsen sample, which has jumped up to 38% currently, from 32% at the same point in 2009. More viewers are watching shows on their own timetables, which may not be reflected in the overnight next day numbers. The only truly valid year-to-year comparison would be one based on the Live + 7 Day metric, once those stats are released by Nielsen.
(Source: ABC – The Nielsen Company (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 10/3/10)
