Monday: Opposite the 2-hour season premiere of NBC’s The Voice and season finales on Fox (Hell’s Kitchen and Masterchef), the season finale and ABC’s Bachelor Pad drew its 2nd largest overall audience this season (behind only its season premiere on 7/23/12) and matched its 2nd-strongest young adult performance since its season premiere. ABC’s Bachelor Pad saw its audience grow in both Total Viewers and Adults 18-49 from its first hour to its second hour. At 10pm, an encore of ABC’s Castle posted double-digit increases week to week in both Total Viewers (+24%) and Adults 18-49 (+17%).
Friday: With season premieres of Shark Tank, What Would You Do? and 20/20, ABC finished a dominant #1 on Friday night in Total Viewers, Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54. In fact, the Net claimed the Top 3 most-watched TV programs of the night. Winning the 8 o’clock hour by wide margins in viewers and young adults, ABC’s Shark Tank opened its 4th season as Friday’s most-watched TV show and drew the series’ biggest audience ever. In addition, the ABC unscripted show equaled its top Adult 18-49 rating for a regular telecast. Growing over its prior season premiere in viewers (+2%) and young adults (+6%), ABC’s Shark Tank hit its best-ever premiere numbers. The season premiere of ABC’s What Would You Do? ranked #1 in the 9 o’clock hour in Total Viewers and Adults 25-54. Topping last season’s January premiere by 6% in Adults 18-49, What Would You Do? matched its best young adult rating in nearly 2 years – since 11/12/10. In addition, the ABC newsmagazine marked its best performance in Total Viewers in 6 months and in Adults 25-54 in 8 months – since 3/16/12 and 1/20/12, respectively. Friday’s #1 TV show in the key Adult 25-54 news demo, ABC’s 20/20 towered over the 10pm hour on all key measures. Head to head from 10-11pm, ABC’s 20/20 beat NBC’s Dateline by enormous margins in Total Viewers (+56%), Adults 25-54 (+85%) and Adults 18-49 (+100%). Anchored by Chris Cuomo, 20/20 featured a look at nasty neighbors, including a birthday party that led to murder, a children’s spat that turned into all-out warfare between their parents and celebrity neighbor showdowns. The program also included a preview of “Best in TV: The Greatest TV Shows of Our Time with Barbara Walters.” ABC’s 20/20 shot up to 6-month highs in viewers and key Adults (AD18-49/AD25-54) – since 3/30/12.
Saturday: With coverage of Saturday Night Football (Notre Dame at Michigan State), ABC finished a dominant #1 on the night in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, topping Fox’s college football coverage (USC at Stanford from 8-10pm) by 1.4 million viewers and by 33% among young adults. Airing from 8:06-11:42pm, ABC’s Saturday Night Football easily qualified as the #1 TV program of the evening in viewers and young adults for its 2nd telecast in a row. In fact, ABC claimed the most-watched program on Saturday for the 3rd consecutive week.
(source: ABC)
