Up Year to Year, ABC Continues to Beat its Non-Sports Sunday Competition
Opposite CBS’ NFL Overrun at 7pm, “AFV” Draws its Biggest Audience in 9 Months
Growing Throughout its 2-Hour Telecast Against NBC’s Big NFL Eagles-Giants Game, “Home Edition” Boosts its Time Slot for ABC by Wide Margins Year to Year
Sunday’s Most-Watched Entertainment Program, “Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special” Draws ABC’s 2nd-Biggest Audience in the Hour this Season
Sunday Night (7:00-11:00 p.m.)
Opposite NFL driven NBC (Eagles-NY Giants) and CBS (Cowboys-Chargers primetime overrun), ABC continued to beat out its non-sports boosted competition on Sunday, defeating Fox’s original Sunday lineup by 4.6 million viewers (10.2 million vs. 5.6 million) and by 12% in Adults18-49 (2.8/7 vs. 2.5/6).
ABC’s Sunday numbers jumped over the year-ago night by 2.3 million viewers and by 22% in Adults 18-49 (7.9 million and 2.3/6 on 12/14/08).
“America’s Funniest Home Videos” (7:00-8:00 p.m.)
Opposite CBS’ big NFL overrun in the 7 o’clock hour, ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos” beat out its non-sports competition on Fox (“Brothers”/”Brothers”) by 5.6 million viewers (8.7 million vs. 3.1 million) and by 91% in Adults 18-49 (2.1/6 vs. 1.1/3).
Despite the substantial NFL competition from CBS in the slot, “AFV” generated the series’ biggest audience in over 9 months – since 3/1/09.
“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (8:00-10:00 p.m.)
Gaining viewers and young adults throughout its 2-hour telecast against NBC’s Eagles-Giants game, ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” improved the time period over the same evening last year (12/14/08) by 1.4 million viewers (10.2 million vs. 8.8 million) and by 15% in Adults 18-49 (3.1/8 vs. 2.7/6).
“Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
ABC’s “Christmas at the White House: An Oprah Primetime Special” registered as Sunday’s most-watched entertainment program (11.8 million).
The Oprah special generated ABC’s 2nd-largest audience in the hour this season – behind only the final hour of the “2009 American Music Awards” on 11/22/09.
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 33% currently, from 28% at the same point in 2008.
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: data and information provided by ABC. – Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 12/13/09)
