ABC’s Desperate Housewives won the 9 o’clock hour and emerged as Sunday’s most-watched regular TV program.
Marking its 2nd-Highest Adult 18-49 Number on the Evening in 3 Months, ABC Beats its Non-Sports-Driven Competition on Sunday by Wide Margins.
ABC’s “AFV” is the No. 1 Non-Sports TV Show at 7pm in Adults 18-49.
ABC’s “Home Edition” Turns in One of its Strongest Performances this Season.
Sunday’s Most-Watched Regular TV Show, “Housewives” Hits a 3-Month High.
Up Week to Week, ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters” is the Top Draw in the 10pm Hour.
Sunday Night (7:00-11:00 p.m.)
Opposite an NFL-fueled Fox with an enormous Wildcard Playoff Game (Eagles-Packers) overrun that went well into the first hour of prime, ABC finished as the No. 1 non-sports-driven network on Sunday among Adults 18-49 (2.6/7), beating CBS by 18% (2.2/6) and NBC (with its highly-promoted 2-hour debut of The Cape) by 44% (1.8/5).
The Net matched its 2nd-highest Sunday Adult 18-49 number in the last 3 months with its regular schedule on the night- since 10/3/10.
“America’s Funniest Home Videos” (7:00-8:00 p.m.)
At 7:00 p.m. against Fox’s NFL overrun in the hour, ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” ranked as the No. 1 regular program with Adults 18-49 (1.8/5), leading CBS’ “60 Minutes” by 13% (1.6/4) and the opening hour of NBC’s “Dateline” by 157% (0.7/2).
AFV rose 10% in Total Viewers over its year-ago telecast (7.6 million vs. 6.9 million).
“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (8:00-9:00 p.m.)
From 8-9pm, ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (2.6/6) beat out CBS’ original “CSI: Miami” (2.5/6) and NBC’s “Dateline” (1.5/4) in Adults 18-49. The ABC unscripted series also earned second place in the hour with Adults 18-34 and key Women (W18-34/W18-49).
“Home Edition” generated its 3rd-most-watched telecast (9.1 million) of the season and hit its 2nd highest Adult 18-49 number this season.
“Desperate Housewives” (9:00-10:00 p.m.)
ABC’s “Desperate Housewives” won the 9 o’clock hour (12.7 million) and emerged as Sunday’s most-watched regular TV program. In its time period, “Housewives” topped runner-up CBS’ “Undercover Boss” by 1.1 million viewers (11.6 million), the opening hour of NBC’s “The Cape” by 4.2 million viewers (8.5 million) and Fox’s NFL-driven animated comedies (“Family Guy”/”The Cleveland Show”) by 4.4 million viewers (8.3 million). In fact “Housewives” qualified as Sunday’s most-watched scripted television show for its 12th consecutive first-run airing this season.
Building its overall audience week to week, “Housewives” equaled its largest audience in 3 months and tied its top young adult number in 2 months – since 10/3/10 and 11/7/10, respectively.
“Brothers & Sisters” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
ABC’s “Brothers & Sisters” qualified as the most-watched TV show in the 10 o’clock hour (8.4 million), topping drama programming on both NBC (“The Cape” = 8.3 million) and CBS (“Criminal Minds” encore = 7.1 million). The ABC drama also registered as the No. 1 show in the time period across all key Women (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).
“Brothers & Sisters” grew its overall viewer count by 6% week to week (8.4 million vs. 7.9 million).
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 38% currently, from 34% 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 Ratings), 1/9/11)
