ABC Registers as the 2nd Most-Watched Network on Sunday Evening.
ABC’s Repeat “America’s Funniest Home Videos” Dominates NBC’s Original “Dateline” in the 7pm Hour, Up Over the Prior Week and Same Week Last Year.
Continuing to Build on its Lead-in and Gain Audience Throughout its Broadcast,
ABC’s Season Finale of “Secret Millionaire” Crushes NBC’s “Next Great Restaurant”.
On Average During its Freshman Season Run, ABC’s “Secret Millionaire” Greatly
Improves its Hour Year to Year, Up by 45% in Viewers and by 38% in Adults 18-49 .
Sunday Night (7:00-11:00 p.m.)
ABC (7.2 million) stood as the 2nd-most-watched network on Sunday to CBS with its Masters Golf Tournament primetime overrun, outdrawing NBC by 1.2 million viewers (6.0 million) and Fox by 2.9 million viewers (4.3 million). The Network also earned No. 2 position on Sunday with Adults 25-54 and across all key Women (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).
“America’s Funniest Home Videos” (7:00-8:00 p.m.)
During the 7 o’clock hour, ABC’s repeat “America’s Funniest Home Videos” took second place in its time period to a Masters Golf Tournament-boosted CBS in Total Viewers (6.6 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.7/5), beating out NBC’s original “Dateline” (4.3 million and 0.9/3) by 53% and 89%, respectively. The encore telecast of the broad-appealing series finished No. 1 in its slot with Women 18-34, and made ABC the top-rated broadcaster in the hour with Teens 12-17 and Kids 2-11.
Among Adults 18-49, ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” replay was up over the prior week (1.6/5) and over its performance on the same night last year (1.6/5 on 4/11/10).
“Secret Millionaire” (8:00-9:00 p.m.)
Surging over its lead-in at 8:00 p.m. in viewers (+2.5 million) and young adults (+35%) and building audience from start to finish, ABC’s season finale of “Secret Millionaire” continued to dominate its freshman unscripted competition on NBC. From 8:00-9:00 p.m., ABC’s “Secret Millionaire” outdelivered NBC’s “America’s Next Great Restaurant” by 5.6 million viewers (9.1 million vs. 3.5 million) and by 92% in Adults 18-49 (2.3/7 vs. 1.2/3). In addition, the ABC unscripted series won its time period among Women 18-34.
Drawing a larger audience for ABC in the hour year to year on all 6 of its telecasts, on average during its freshman season “Secret Millionaire” delivered impressive time period improvement in Total Viewers (+45% – 11.2 million vs. 7.7 million) and Adults 18-49 (+38% – 2.9/8 vs. 2.1/6), over the same nights last season.
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 40% currently, from 36% at the same point in 2010.
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), 4/10/11)
