ABC night of season-finales 'The Middle' 2nd place

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At 8pm, ABC’s sophomore season finale of The Middle finished #2 to Idol in viewers and young adults. 


Opposite Fox’s 2-hour American Idol season closer on the final evening of the season, ABC’s Wednesday night comedy finales earned a strong second place among Adults 18-49, beating CBS by 35% and NBC by 92%. 

Building week to week against the Idol finale in viewers (+5%) and young adults (+5%), ABC equaled 15-week Wednesday highs in both Adults 18-49 and Adults 18-34 – since 2/9/11.  Surging over the year-ago night by double-digit percentages in viewers (+31%) and young adults (+28%), ABC marked its strongest season-ending Wednesday in 4 years – since 2007.  On average during the 2010-11 season, ABC’s Wednesday numbers grew over last season in both Total Viewers (+10%) and Adults 18-49 (+4%).

At 8pm, ABC’s sophomore season finale of The Middle finished #2 to Idol in viewers and young adults.  The Middle posted its highest-rated telecast in more than 4 months with Men 18-34 – since 1/19/11. 

On average during its sophomore season, ABC’s The Middle finished as TV’s 2nd-biggest year-to-year gainer among returning scripted series (behind only Modern Family), surging by 21% in Total Viewers over its performance in the 8:30pm half-hour last season. 

At 8:30pm among Adults 18-49, a repeat telecast of Modern Family beat out CBS’ replay Big Bang Theory by 12% and NBC’s replay Minute to Win It by 90%.

Soaring over its lead-in with Total Viewers (+70%) and Adults 18-49 (+116%) against the third half-hour of Idol at 9pm, ABC’s season closer of Modern Family finished as Wednesday’s #1 scripted show on both Nielsen measures.  

In fact among Adults 18-49, the ABC comedy qualified as Wednesday’s #1 scripted show on all 24 of its original airings this season.  Up against the Idol finale and the NBA Playoffs, Modern Family held all of its Total Viewer and Adult 18-49 audience week to week, while posting its highest numbers in 2 months among key Men (M18-34/M18-49) – since 3/23/11. ABC’s Modern Family capped out its sophomore season as the fastest-growing TV show on the broadcast nets, jumping over its freshman season by 23% in Total Viewers and by 20% in Adults 18-49. 
 
In the 9:30 p.m. half-hour against the final segment of Idol, the first part of ABC’s 2-part season finale Cougar Town ran as the #2 series in its half-hour across all key Adult demos (AD18-34/AD18-49/AD25-54). Cougar Town was up week to week in Total Viewers and key Women (W18-34/W18-49).

At 10:00pm opposite season finale programming on CBS and NBC, the second part of ABC’s Cougar Town finale finished as the #2 series in its time period among Adults 18-49 and # 1 among Adults 18-34.  Cougar Town improved its half-hour week to week for ABC by wide margins in Total Viewers (+32% ) and Adults 18-49 (+27%).

Building its numbers at 10:30pm, ABC’s freshman season finale of Happy Endings posted the Net’s top Adult 18-49 rating in the time slot in 6 weeks, its highest Adult 18-34 number in more than 4 months and its best Men 18-34 number in more than 6 months – since 4/13/11, 1/12/11 and 11/10/10, respectively.

(source: ABC)