Surging from its Lead-in by 43%, “The Middle” Finishes as the No. 1 Non-Sports Show in its Half-Hour for the 2nd Straight Week in Adults 18-49
Beating its Non-Sports Competition at 9pm, ABC’s “Modern Family” is Wednesday’s No. 1 TV Series in Adults 18-49 for the 2nd Week in a Row
“Cougar Town” is the Top Series at 9:30pm with Adults 18-34 and Key Men
At 10pm, ABC’s “Eastwick” Beats “NBC’s “Leno” for the 3rd Straight Week Among Adults 18-49, Leading by an Even Wider Margin of 23% This Week
“The Middle” (8:30-9:00 p.m.)
Jumping from its lead-in by 43% in Adults 18-49 at 8:30 p.m., for the 2nd week in a row against Fox’s World Series coverage, ABC’s “The Middle” finished as the No. 1 non-sports TV show in its half-hour in Adults 18-49 (2.0/5-tie). The new ABC comedy was also the top series in the half-hour with key Men: M18-34 (1.3/4) and M18-49 (1.7/5).
“Modern Family” (9:00-9:30 p.m.)
Shooting up from its lead-in by 70% in Adults 18-49, ABC’s “Modern Family” beat out its non-sports competitors at 9:00 p.m. to qualify as the No. 1 TV series of the night for the 2nd straight week (3.4/9).
* “Modern Family” is exhibiting big increases over its first-reported numbers through DVR playback, jumping by 1.2 million viewers and by an additional 6-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point from the initially reported Live + Same Day Numbers to the Live + 7 Day DVR finals.
“Cougar Town” (9:30-10:00 p.m.)
ABC’s “Cougar Town” finished No. 2 against its non-sports competition at 9:30 p.m. in Adults 18-49 (2.7/7) to the second-half of CBS’ “Criminal Minds.” Against the World Series, the ABC freshman placed as the No. 1 series telecast in the time period with Adults 18-34 (2.5/7-tie), Men 18-49 (2.2/6-tie) and among hard-to-reach Men 18-34 (1.9/6).
* Like its lead-in, “Cougar Town” is producing sizeable gains over its first-reported numbers through DVR playback, increasing by 1.1 million viewers and by an additional 5-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point from the initially reported Live + Same Day Numbers to the Live + 7 Day DVR finals.
“Eastwick” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
ABC’s “Eastwick” continued to beat NBC’s “Jay Leno” in the 10 o’clock hour (3 weeks in a row), leading by an even wider margin of 23% this week among Adults 18-49 (1.6/4 vs. 1.3/4).
* “Eastwick” is seeing bumps from the first-reported numbers through DVR playback, averaging an additional 1.0 million viewers and a 4-tenths of an Adult 18-49 rating point increase from the initially reported Live + Same Day Numbers to the Live + 7 Day DVR finals.
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 by ABC. Note: Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 11/4/09.)
