Wednesday’s #1 TV show for the 2nd week in a row, ABC’s Modern Family outperformed Fox’s American Idol on the night by 19% in Adults 18-49, now beating or tying Idol on each of its last 4 originals. Out of Modern, How to Live with Your Parents (For the Rest of Your Life) continued to deliver improved lead-in retention for ABC and held a promising 86% of its week-ago debut rating.
At 8pm, ABC’s The Middle was up week to week in Total Viewers (+3%) and held 100% of its Adult 18-49 rating, drawing its biggest overall audience and matching its best young adult number since February 27, 2013. The Middle was also up over its year-ago telecast by 4% in viewers.
With solid retention of its lead-in at 8:30pm, ABC’s Suburgatory held nearly all of its week-ago time-period premiere with Total Viewers (97%) and Adults 18-49 (94%). Suburgatory took second in its slot with Women 18-34, beating the second half-hour of CBS’ Survivor.
Growing over its Adult 18-49 lead-in at 9pm (+124%), ABC’s Modern Family won its half-hour by 15% over American Idol and defeated its nearest scripted competition in the slot by 31% (CBS’ Criminal Minds).
With greatly improved lead-in retention over the Net’s season averages in the 9:30pm half-hour (original to original) in viewers (72% vs. 58%) and young adults (66% vs. 53%), ABC’s How to Live with Your Parents held strong with its week-ago debut telecast in Total Viewers (87%), Adults 18-49 (86%), Men 18-34 (93%) and Men 18-49 (95%).
Posting its 2nd straight telecast of growth during the 10 o’clock hour, ABC’s Nashville was up in viewers (+9%) and young adults (+6%), hitting its best numbers since January – since 1/16/13 and 1/23/13, respectively. Delivering among the biggest increases in TV playback this season, Nashville’s Adult 18-49 rating for originals spikes 63% on average (going from a 1.9 in L+SD to a 3.1 rating in L+7), making it one of the Top 10 biggest gainers on broadcast television this season and tying Revolution as the top freshman gainer.
