With the 14th-season premiere DWTS and Castle against all-original competition, ABC stood as the most-watched TV network on Monday night, outdrawing runner-up NBC (The Voice and Smash) by 6.2 million viewers. In addition, ABC ranked #2 the night in Adults 18-49, matching CBS (8-10pm comedy block/Hawaii Five-0) and beating Fox (House/Alcatraz) by 72%.
In viewers and young adults, ABC marked its biggest Monday since September – since 9/19/11 and 9/26/11, respectively.
Monday’s most-watched TV show, ABC’s Dancing with the Stars soared to the top of its time slot with an average audience of 18.5 million viewers, beating NBC’s The Voice by 6.7 million viewers in head-to-head competition. In fact, DWTS became the first program this season to outdraw The Voice, as the NBC series dropped to season lows. In addition among Adults 18-49, Dancing beat out CBS’ comedy block (+3%) and nearly doubled the delivery of Fox’s back-to-back dramas (+94%).
- In viewers and young adults, DWTS turned in ABC’s best numbers in the time period since season-premiere Monday 6 months ago – since 9/19/11.
ABC’s Castle drew 11.9 million viewers on average, to finish as the most-watched TV show during the 10 o’clock hour, topping CBS Hawaii Five-0 by a season-best 32% and NBC’s Smash by 78%. The ABC drama also ranked #1 in the hour with Adults 25-54. In addition, Castle defeated NBC’s The Voice-led Smash among Adults 18-49.
- Jumping over its most-recent original three weeks ago (on 2/27/12) in Total Viewers (+31%) and Adults 18-49 (+14%), ABC’s generated its strongest performance since October – since 10/31/11.
(Source: ABC)
