ABC's “Castle” Dominates NBC’s “Jay Leno” Monday

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Drawing a Season-High, ABC is Monday’s Most-Watched Network, Beating CBS by 3.0 Million, Fox by 4.7 Million and NBC by 10.2 Million


Attracting is Largest Audience Since its Season Premiere,“DWTS” Is Monday’s Most-Watched Series Program for the 8th Week Running 

“Castle” Dominates NBC’s “Jay Leno” With its Largest Margins to Date in Total Viewers, While Doubling its Performance among Adults 18-49

Monday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.)
For the 4th time in the last 5 weeks, ABC stood as the night’s most-watched network (15.1 million), beating CBS by 3.0 million viewers (12.1 million), Fox by 4.7 million (10.4 million) and NBC by 10.2 million viewers (4.9 million).  Further, ABC logged a season high in Total Viewers, drawing its largest audience on the night in 6 months – since 5/11/09. 

“Dancing with the Stars” (8:00-10:02 p.m.)
Attracting its largest audience since its season premiere, ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” stood as Monday’s No. 1 telecast in viewers (17.6 million), ranking as TV’s most-watched series program on Monday for the 8th time in 8 weeks this season. The ABC dance competition built its audience from its first hour to its second hour in both Total Viewers (17.3 million to 17.9 million) and Adults 18-49 (3.3/9 to 3.6/9). In fact, in the 9 o’clock hour, “Dancing with the Stars” outperformed original dramas on Fox (+20% – 3.0/7 with “Lie to Me”) and NBC (+100% – 1.8/4 with “Trauma”).  

“DWTS” won its 2-hour time period for the 7th consecutive week among Women 18-49 (4.9/12) and Women 25-54 (6.7/15).

“Castle” (10:02-11:00 p.m.)
For the 3rd week in a row, ABC’s “Castle” outperformed NBC’s “Jay Leno” in the 10 o’clock hour with its largest margin to-date in Total Viewers (+5.7 million viewers – 9.8 million vs. 4.1 million), while doubling its performance among Adults 18-49 (+100% – 2.4/6 vs. 1.2/3).  

One of TV’s biggest gainers in the 10 o’clock hour this season, ABC’s “Castle” is generating substantial increases over its first-reported numbers through DVR playback, picking up an average 1.7 million viewers and an additional 6-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point (+26%) from the initially reported Live + Same Day Numbers to the Live + 7 Day DVR finals.     

On average, “Castle” is improving the time period year to year for ABC, growing its hour over the same nights last year with “Boston Legal” in both Total Viewers (+1.6 million – 10.6 million vs. 9.0 million) and Adults 18-49 (+13% – 2.7/7 vs. 2.4/6). 

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 33% currently, from 28% at the same point in 2008. 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: release and data provided by ABC. – Nielsen Media Research (National, Live + Same Day Program Ratings), 11/09/09.   DVR Playback = 9/21-10/25/09)