ABC Continues to See Big Year-to-Year Gains with its New Summer Tuesday, Up Over the Year-Ago Night by 1.7 Million Viewers and by 54% in Adults 18-49.
ABC’s “Wipeout” Wins its Hour for the 2nd Straight Week in Adults 18-49. Opposite Stiff Established Competition, “Downfall” Improves its Slot For ABC Year-to-Year by 1.4 Million Viewers and by 40% in Adults 18-49. “Primetime: Mind Games” Grows its Hour from the Year-Ago Night by 11%.
Tuesday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.) For the 2nd week in a row, ABC generated big year-to-year improvement with its new Tuesday summer schedule. Continuing to grow its young adult audience in each hour from the year-ago night, the Net surged over the same Tuesday last year (6/30/09 – an all-original schedule) by 1.7 million viewers (5.2 million vs. 3.5 million) and by 55% in Adults 18-49 (1.7/5 vs. 1.1/3).
“Wipeout-TUES” (8:00-9:00 p.m.) ABC’s “Wipeout” ranked No. 1 in its time period among Adults 18-49 (2.6/9) for the 2nd straight week. The broad-appealing unscripted series also won its hour for the 2nd week running among Adults 25-54 and key Men (M18-49/M25-54). “Wipeout” once again finished as Tuesday’s top-rated broadcast show with Teens 12-17 and Kids 2-11.
“Downfall” (9:00-10:00 p.m.) Against well-established unscripted competition on NBC (“America’s Got Talent”) and Fox (second hour of “Hell’s Kitchen”), “Downfall” continued to improve its time period for ABC year to year, jumping by 1.4 million viewers (4.1 million vs. 2.7 million) and by 40% in Adults 18-49 (1.4/4 vs. 1.0/3) over the year-ago evening.
“Primetime: Mind Games” (10:00-11:00 p.m.) In the 10 o’clock hour, ABC News’ “Primetime: Mind Games” ranked No. 2 against its CBS and NBC competition among Adults 18-49 (1.0/3 – tie) and Adults 18-34 (0.7/2).
“Primetime: Mind Games” boosted ABC’s delivery in the hour year-to-year by 11% in Adults 18-49 (1.0/3 vs. 0.9/3), over the year-ago night.
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 37% currently, from 32% at the same point in 2009. 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: ABC – The Nielsen Company (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 6/29/10)
