Dancing with the Stars concludes with a two-hour edition tonight.
Featuring the Monday finale of DWTS and the season premiere of The Bachelorette, ABC dominated its 4th consecutive Monday of the 2011 May Sweep, defeating runner-up Fox with its season finales (House/The Chicago Code) by 5.6 million viewers and by 31% in Adults 18-49.
For the 4th week in a row, the Net topped its broadcast competition in all 6 half-hours of the night with viewers and young adults. In fact on each of the final 11 weeks of the season, ABC qualified as Monday’s most-watched television network and delivered the #1 position on the evening in Adults 18-49 on 10 of 11 weeks.
The Net boosted its year-to-year May Sweep returns on all 4 Mondays, building by 1.1 million viewers and by 6% with young adults over the same night a year ago (5/24/10).
At 8pm, a 1-hour edition of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars made it a perfect 10 for 10, ranking #1 in its time period on all 10 telecasts this season in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49.
In its time slot, DWTS drew a larger overall audience than the other nets combined and topped Fox’s House Finale by 39% with Adults 18-49. The ABC dancing performance program once again registered as Monday’s #1 TV show in Total Viewers (10 of 10 telecasts) and Adults 18-49 (9 of 10 telecasts).
DWTS rose by double-digit percentages over its year-ago Monday finale, gaining 14% in Total Viewers and 15% in Adults 18-49. In fact DWTS drew its biggest-ever audience for a spring finale.
On average, Season 12 of DWTS grew over Season 11 in Total Viewers (+4%) and in Adults 18-49 (+7%), finishing out as the franchise’s most-watched-ever season overall.
On its 7th season opener, ABC’s The Bachelorette finished #1 in its 2-hour time period in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, leading CBS by 27% and 40%, respectively
In addition, The Bachelorette was the dominant series in its time slot with Adults 18-34 and across all key Women demos (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).
ABC’s The Bachelorette stood the 2nd most-watched TV show of the night, behind only DWTS.
Building its audience for its 3rd consecutive premiere, it was the most-watched opener overall for The Bachelorette since 2004 – since the premiere of Season 2 on 1/14/04.
(source: ABC)
