ABC took full control from 8-10pm with New Year’s Rockin’ Eve: The 40th Anniversary Party.
Overall: During the week of 12/26/11, ABC aired 2 of the Top 4 non-sports TV programs in Adults 18-49, including the #1 non-sports show with Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest ’12: New Year’s Rockin’ Eve ’12 – #1 and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve: 40th Anniversary – #4. Drawing the annual special’s biggest-ever audience since debuting on ABC in 2000, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve ’12 also finished as TV’s most-watched entertainment program overall in primetime for the week. And although it aired outside of prime, the late-night portion of New Year’s Rockin Eve pulled in an average audience of 22.6 million viewers (11:30pm-12:35am), achieving an 11-year high for the program – best since 2000.
Tuesday: Featuring comedy encores from 8-10pm and a repeat drama at 10pm, ABC came in as the 2nd-most-watched TV network on Tuesday night to CBS, outdrawing NBC by 89% and Fox’s repeat comedy line-up by 113%. In addition, ABC ran in a near-tie for first place on the night among its network rivals in Adults 18-49 with CBS (pacing within 1-tenth of a rating point and tied in audience share). The Net scored double-digit week-to-week gains with viewers (+11%) and young adults (+18%) and also grew over the same night last year by 42% in Total Viewers and by 30% in Adults 18-49.
During the 8 o’clock hour, back-to-back replays of ABC’s Last Man Standing earned second place with Total Viewers, outdrawing the overall audience of Fox’s encore Glee by 181%. The broad-appealing comedy also came in second versus its network rivals in the hour in Adults 18-49, Men 18-49 and Women 18-49, while topping its net rivals in Teens 12-17 and Kids 2-11. ABC’s Last Man Standing finished as Tuesday’s #1 comedy for the 2nd straight week. Both episodes of Last Man towered over encores of Fox’s Glee at 8pm, New Girl at 9pm and Raising Hope at 9:30pm with Total Viewers and Adults 18-49. In the 9 o’clock half-hour, ABC’s repeat The Middle ranked #1 against its network rivals in Adults 18-49, beating CBS’ special presentation of The 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors by 8%, Fox’s replay of New Girl by 40% and NBC’s The Biggest Loser 12: Where Are They Now? by 56%.
The repeat ABC sitcom led its net rivals in the half-hour in key Women (W18-34/W18-49). The Middle was up over the prior week’s repeat in the time slot by 12% in Total Viewers and by 8% in Adults 18-49, marking its most-watched repeat on the night this season. At 9:30pm, ABC’s replay Suburgatory led its network rivals in Adults 18-49, beating its repeat comedy competition on Fox by 33% (Raising Hope) and original programming on CBS by 20%. Like its lead-in, Suburgatory ranked No. 1 against its net rivals in its slot in Women 18-34 and Women 18-49. The freshman comedy posted sizable double-digit gains over its week-ago repeat in viewers (+24%) and young adults (+20%) to deliver its most-watched Tuesday repeat of the season. ABC’s repeat Body of Proof more than doubled NBC’s encore drama (Parenthood) in Total Viewers (+143%). Body of Proof grew week to week by 11% in Total Viewers and by 38% in Adults 18-49 to turn in its best-ever repeat number in Total Viewers.
Wednesday: With repeat comedies from 8-10pm (The Middle/Suburgatory/Modern Family/Happy Endings) and a replay of Revenge at 10pm, ABC beat NBC by 50% and Fox’s encore comedy line-up (from 8-10pm) by 20% on Wednesday night among Adults 18-49.
ABC also finished as the 2nd-most-watched broadcaster on the evening. At 8pm, ABC’s replay of The Middle dominated its repeat comedy competition in the half-hour among Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, leading NBC’s Up All Night by 1.9 million viewers and 30% in young adults and Fox’s Raising Hope by 2.9 million viewers and 44% in young adults. ABC’s encore Suburgatory qualified as the 2nd-most-watched program in the 8:30pm half-hour, outdrawing NBC’s Whitney by 1.9 million viewers and Fox’s Raising Hope by 2.4 million viewers. In addition, among young adults, the ABC freshman sitcom defeated competing sitcoms on NBC by 56% and on Fox by 75%.
Standing as the top comedy of the night, ABC’s replay Modern Family at 9pm ranked #2 in its slot in both viewers and young adults, while finishing #1 with Women 18-34. Head to head against Fox’s repeat New Girl in the half-hour, Modern Family more than doubled the Fox sitcom’s overall audience (+124%), while outperforming by 73% in Adults 18-49. Like its lead-in, a replay of ABC’s Happy Endings beat Fox’s New Girl during the 9:30pm half-hour in both Total Viewers (+21%) and Adults 18-49 (+9%).
Thursday: ABC’s annual rebroadcast of Happy New Year, Charlie Brown earned second place versus its network rivals in the 8pm hour with Adults 18-49, leading Fox’s encore Bones by 10% and NBC’s repeat comedies by 83% (Community/Parks and Recreation). The animated holiday special topped its broadcast competitors with Kids 2-11.
Friday: Featuring a rebroadcast of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe from 8-11pm, ABC ranked #1 against its network rivals on Friday evening with Adults 18-49 (tied w/CBS), leading Fox by 43% and NBC’s mostly original line-up by 11%. ABC also led the pack among Adults 18-34, Women 18-34 and Kids 2-11.
Saturday: With its New Year’s Eve lineup, featuring New Year’s Rockin’ Eve: The 40th Anniversary Party and Dick Cark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2012, ABC finished a dominant #1 on the evening among Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, winning all 6 half-hours of the night and beating its combined network competition by 3.3 million viewers and by 76% with young adults (CBS, NBC and Fox combined). Among viewers and young adults, ABC marked its biggest New Year’s Eve numbers during primetime in 11 years – since 12/31/00. Hitting season-highs on the night, ABC generated its most-watched Saturday night overall in more than 2 years – since 12/5/09 with coverage of the college football Big 12 Championship game.
ABC took full control from 8-10pm with New Year’s Rockin’ Eve: The 40th Anniversary Party leading its nearest broadcast competition (CBS) by 236% in viewers and by 400% with young adults. Surging over its lead-in, ABC’s broadcast of Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2012 towered over the final hour of the night and ranked as the #1 TV program in prime with Total Viewers and across each of the key Adult demos.
In fact during the final hour of prime, Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve more than doubled the combined deliveries of CBS and NBC with Total Viewers (+105%) and Adults 18-49 (+156%). Head-to-head from 10-11pm, ABC’s Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest crushed NBC’s New Year’s Ev
e with Carson Daly Prime by 9.8 million viewers and by 356% in Adults 18-49. Dick Clark’s Primetime New Year’s Rockin’ Eve pulled in its biggest audience ever on ABC – the special premiered on the Net in 2000. The show shot up over last year’s telecast by 3.7 million viewers and by 46% in Adults 18-49.
(source; ABC)
