“Modern Family” Tops “Idol” to Stand as the Night’s No. 1 TV Show in Adults 18-34
ABC’s “The Middle” Matches its Best-Ever Adult 18-49 Performance Against “Idol”
Lifting its Slot for ABC Year Over Year, “Suburgatory” Crushes NBC’s “Are You
There, Chelsea?,” Leading by a Best-Yet 97% in Viewers and 67% in Adults 18-49
Posting its Best Numbers Since the Start of the Year, ABC’s “Modern Family” Dominates its Slot to Finish as the Night’s No. 1 Scripted Show in Adults 18-49
Hitting 5-Week Highs in Viewers and Adults 18-49, ABC’s “Happy Endings”
Takes First Place in the 9:30pm Half-Hour with Adults 18-34 and Women 18-34
ABC’s “Revenge” Generates Big Year-Over-Year Increases for the Net During
Wednesday’s 10 O’clock Hour and Equals a 12-Week High Among Adults 18-49
Wednesday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.)
Returning to originals for the first time in 3 weeks, ABC (3.1/8) delivered a strong 2nd-place finish on Wednesday to an Idol-driven Fox in Adults 18-49, beating out third-place CBS by 29% (2.4/6) and fourth-place NBC by 94% (1.6/4).
* ABC’s “Modern Family” stood as the clear No. 1 scripted program on Wednesday with Adults 18-49. Impressively, the ABC comedy outdelivered “American Idol” to qualify as the night’s No. 1 TV show overall in Adults 18-34, key Men (M18-34/M18-49) and Women 18-34.
* In viewers and young adults, ABC marked its strongest Wednesday since the beginning of January – since 1/4/12.
“The Middle” (8:00-8:30 p.m.)
At 8:00 p.m., ABC’s “The Middle” (8.5 million and 2.6/8) earned second to “American Idol,” more than doubling the audience of its NBC comedy competition (“Whitney” = 4.1 million and 1.5/4) and leading by 73% with Adults 18-49. It was “The Middle’s” biggest winning advantage yet over NBC’s “Whitney.”
* “The Middle” was up over its most-recent original in Total Viewers (+5%) and Adults 18-49 (+4%). In fact, the show equaled its best-ever performance against an installment of “Idol” in Adults 18-49.
“Suburgatory” (8:30-9:00 p.m.)
Like its lead-in, ABC’s “Suburgatory” beat out its non-“Idol” competition at 8:30 p.m. by wide margins and crushed its freshman comedy competition on NBC (“Are You There, Chelsea?”) with viewers (+97% – 7.3 million vs. 3.7 million) and young adults (+67% – 2.5/7 vs. 1.5/4). In fact, “Suburgatory” posted its best-ever winning margins over NBC’s “Are You There, Chelsea?”
* “Suburgatory” boosted its time period for ABC over the year-ago Wednesday against “Idol” by 7% in Total Viewers and by 19% in Adults 18-49.
“Modern Family” (9:00-9:30 p.m.)
Wednesday’s No. 1 scripted TV program among Adults 18-49, ABC’s “Modern Family” (5.5/14) more than doubled its lead-in at 9:00 p.m. to dominate its slot by 72% over its closest competition (“Criminal Minds” and “Mobbed” tied at 3.2/8).
* Up over its last original in viewers (+8%) and young adults (+8%), ABC’s “Modern Family” registered its top numbers since the beginning of the year – since 1/4/12. In addition, the ABC comedy scored its highest rating in nearly 3 months with Women 18-34 – 11/16/11.
“Happy Endings” (9:30-10:00 p.m.)
During the 9:30 p.m. half-hour, ABC’s “Happy Endings” ran a strong second in Adults 18-49, beating out Fox’s “Idol”-fueled “Mobbed” (3.0/7 vs. 2.9/7). In addition, “Happy Endings” won its time slot in Adults 18-34 and Women 18-34.
* ABC’s “Happy Endings” built on its last first-run telecast in viewers (+14%) and young adults (+3%), pulling its top numbers since the beginning of the year – since 1/4/12. In addition, the ABC sophomore comedy hit its best number since mid-November with Men 18-49 – since 11/16/11.
“Revenge” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
From 10:00-11:00 p.m., ABC freshman drama “Revenge” ran a strong second in its hour, beating NBC’s “L&O: SVU” by double digits in Total Viewers (+13% – 7.6 million vs. 6.7 million) and Adults 18-49 (+14% – 2.5/7 vs. 2.2/6). In addition, the Disney-owned drama ranked No. 1 in the hour with Adults 18-34 and across all key Women (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).
* ABC’s “Revenge” matched a 12-week high in Adults 18-49 – since 11/16/11.
* “Revenge” produced substantial year-over-year improvement for ABC in Wednesday’s 10 o’clock hour, surging by 2.0 million viewers and by 32% in Adults 18-49 over first-run drama programming on the year-ago evening (“Off the Map” on 2/9/11 = 5.6 million and 1.9/5).
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 43% currently, from 39% at the same point in 2011. 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: The Nielsen Company (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Ratings), 2/8/12.
(Source: ABC)
