ABC premiere 'Dancing With the Stars' jbig time winner

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Head to head during its 2-hour time period, ABC’s Dancing With The Stars beat out its unscripted competition by huge margins.


Despite going up against CBS with the high-profile return of Two and a Half Men on Monday, ABC finished as the most-watched TV network on the opening night of the 2011-12 season with the openers of DWTS and Castle, outdrawing CBS by 1.2 million viewers (HIMYM/Two and a Half Men/2 Broke Girls/Hawaii Five-0), Fox by 11.0 million viewers (2-hour season finale of Hell’s Kitchen) and NBC by 11.8 million viewers (2-hour premiere of Sing Off/series debut of The Playboy Club).  In fact, it was ABC’s 4th time in the last 5 years to open as the most-watched network on the first Monday of the season.  Among Adults 18-49, ABC defeated Fox by 48% and NBC by 106%. 

Building its audience from its first hour to its second hour opposite CBS’ Two and a Half Men-fueled comedy block from 8-10pm, the 13th season opener of Dancing with the Stars made ABC the most-watched net in its time slot, topping CBS by 1.0 million viewers. 

Head to head during its 2-hour time period, ABC’s DWTS beat out its unscripted competition by huge margins, topping Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen finale by 12.7 million viewers and by 56% in Adults 18-49 and NBC’s The Sing Off season premiere by 13.4 million viewers and by 105% in Adults 18-49. 

Surging year to year and starting out its 4th season as the most-watched drama in 10 o’clock hour, ABC’s opener of Castle topped CBS’ opener of Hawaii Five-0 by 13% and more than doubled NBC’s series debut of The Playboy Club (+172%).  The ABC drama also doubled The Playboy Club with Adults 18-49 (+106%).  In addition, ABC’s Castle stood as the #1 series in the hour with Adults 18-34 and across all key Women (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).  

Marking its best-ever season premiere, ABC’s Castle jumped over its year-ago season opener in Total Viewers (+27%) and Adults 18-49 (+22%).  In fact among viewers and young adults, the ABC drama generated its 2nd-highest-ever numbers.   

DVR Playback Notes (based on originals during the 2010-11 TV Season):

Last season, DWTS saw gains over its first-reported numbers of 1.0 million viewers and 3-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point (+7%) from the initially reported Live + Same Day ratings to the Live + 7 Day playback finals.

One of TV’s biggest gainers in the 10 o’clock hour last season, Castle generated substantial increases over its first-reported numbers, picking up an average of 2.5 million viewers and an additional 8-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point (+30%) from the L+SD to the L+7 numbers. 

(source: ABC)