NBC claims February sweep win

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Making its move from worst to first, the NBC Peacock is strutting proudly now that the February sweep is in the books. Paced by the combination of the Super Bowl on February 5th, which belonged to NBC Sports this year, and primetime’s #1 series for the month, “The Voice,” NBC declared that it has won the February 2012 Nielsen Sweep in the key 18-49 demo.


The hit Monday singing competition The Voice, which had been given the prime post-Super Bowl slot as well, finished as the #1 series for the February sweep in adults, men and women 18-34; adults, men (tie) and women 18-49; adults and women 25-54; kids 2-11 and teens 12-17, the network said. The performance was led by results for its February 5th season premiere following the Super Bowl.  In adults 18-49, The Voice averaged a 7.5 rating for the month and in total viewers, The Voice delivered 19.4 million persons.

With all 28 nights of the February 2-29 period now measured, “most current” averages in adults 18-49 for the month are: NBC (a 3.7 rating), CBS (3.0), Fox (3.0), ABC (2.5) and CW (0.7).   In total viewers, “most current” sweep averages are CBS (12.2 million), NBC (10.4 million), Fox (8.5 million), ABC (7.8 million) and CW (1.6 million).

With this year’s boosts from the Super Bowl and The Voice, NBC says it is up versus the year-ago February sweep by 131% in 18-49 rating (to a 3.7 from a 1.6) and up 86 percent in total viewers (10.4 million vs. 5.6 million).  According to “most current” results for the sweep, NBC is #1 or tied for #1 in all key demographics – adults, men and women 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54.

The combination of The Voice and the critically acclaimed new drama “Smash” (3.1 rating in 18-49, 8.9 viewers overall) helped NBC triple its Monday 18-49 average rating from the year-ago February 2011 sweep (with a 5.2 vs. a 1.7).

NBC said the February sweep figures it cites are “most current” averages of “live plus seven day” data except for the two most recent weeks, which are “live plus same day.”