Restated Nielsen Data: ABC Premiere Week Highlights
Based on Nielsen's restated National Live + Same Program Ratings for 2014-15 season premiere week (9/22-9/28/14), ABC's key Primetime, News and Late-Night highlights held:
· ABC's primetime was #1 in the non-sports weekly averages with 6 of the Top 15 non-sports shows (most for any net), including the Top 2 dramas, #1 new comedy and #1 new drama.
· World News Tonight with David Muir ranked #1 during season premiere week in Adults 25-54 for the first time in 7 years
· GMA won season premiere week in Total Viewers, AD25-54 and AD18-49 with an 8-year high in the key news demo
· This Week earned its strongest season premiere week performance in 6 years
· Jimmy Kimmel Live posted its most-watched-ever season premiere week and defeated Fallon on Thursday
· Scandal opened with a series high in its new Thursday 9pm slot
· How to Get Away with Murder was TV's top 10pm drama debut in 2 years
· black-ish delivered the best retention for any comedy debut out of Modern Family in 5 years
· Once Upon a Time opened 33% higher than a year ago to deliver the series' highest rating in 2 years
· Forever built from its first to second telecast by 13% and was ABC's top-rated fall debut in the hour in 4 years
· The Goldbergs built on its lead-in by 14% to deliver the series 2nd-highest-ever rating.
· Resurrection beat The Good Wife by 69% and was up from its May finale to its best number since March
Overall Primetime Highlights:
Based on Nielsen's non-sports primetime averages, ABC led the opening week of the season in Adults 18-49 (2.2 rating). Looking at ratings to the hundredth, ABC (2.24 rating) outdelivered NBC by 3% (2.18 rating), CBS by 15% (1.94 rating) and Fox by 28% (1.78 rating).
In the restated numbers, ABC aired 6 of premiere week's Top 15 non-sports TV programs in Adults 18-49 (more than any other net), including the No. 1 new series ("How to Get Away with Murder"), the No. 1 new comedy ("black-ish") and the Top 2 dramas ("Scandal" and "How to Get Away with Murder"): "Modern Family" (3.8 rating), "Scandal (3.8 rating) and "How to Get Away with Murder" (3.8 rating) tied at No. 7, "Once Upon a Time" (3.5 rating) - No. 10, "black-ish" (3.3 rating) - No. 12 and "Grey's Anatomy" (3.1 rating) - No. 15. CBS, NBC and Fox each placed 3 programs in the non-sports Top 15.
Key Time Period Highlights for Prime:
In its regular Tuesday 10:00 p.m. time slot, ABC's "Forever" was up 31% from the year-ago drama debut in the hour in Adults 18-49 (1.7 rating vs. 1.3 rating for "Lucky 7"), ranking as the Net's top-rated Tuesday 10:00 p.m. fall series debut in 4 years - since 9/21/10. In fact, in a rare feat for a new series, "Forever" grew over its Monday preview by 13% in Adults 18-49 (1.7 rating vs. 1.5 rating).
Building on its Adult 18-49 lead-in (+14% - 2.4 rating vs. 2.1 rating) in its new Wednesday 8:30 p.m. slot, "The Goldbergs" was ABC's top-rated comedy premiere in the half-hour in 3 years - since 9/28/11. In its new earlier time period, "The Goldbergs" scored the series' 2nd-highest-ever number, behind only its year-ago debut coming out of the "S.H.I.E.L.D." opener on a Tuesday at 9:00 p.m.
Dominating the Wednesday 9:30 p.m. half-hour in Adults 18-49 (3.3 rating), ABC's "black-ish" delivered impressive hold of its "Modern Family" lead-in (87% - 3.3 rating vs. 3.8 rating), marking the best lead-in retention for a regular comedy debut in the slot and best in 5 years in young adults (since 9/23/09).
Shifting back an hour into its new Thursday 9:00 p.m. slot, "Scandal" opened its 4th season at a series high in Adults 18-49 (3.8 rating), building over the year-ago premiere by 8% (3.6/10 on 10/3/13).
Holding 100% of "Scandal's" Adults 18-49 lead-in, ABC's "How to Get Away with Murder" (3.8 rating) equaled TV's top-rated 10:00 p.m. drama debut in 2 years - since 9/17/12, matching the year-ago "Blacklist" debut.
Building sharply on its lead-in Sunday at 8:00 p.m., ABC's 4th season opener of "Once Upon a Time" took second to the NFL game in the hour and dominated its CBS drama competition with Adults 18-49, more than doubling "Madam Secretary" (+150% - 3.5 rating vs. 1.4 rating). Topping its 2-hour May finale by 52% in Adults 18-49 (2.3 on 5/11/14), "Once Upon a Time" equaled its highest rating in 2 years - since 9/30/12. In addition, the ABC drama was up from its year ago opener by 33% in Adults 18-49 (2.6 on 9/29/13).
Sunday at 9:00 p.m., ABC's "Resurrection" season premiere defeated CBS' competing "The Good Wife" by 69% in Adults 18-49 (2.2 rating vs. 1.3 rating). "Resurrection" was up from where it finished out its first season, outpacing its May finale by 5% in Adults 18-49 (2.1 rating on 5/4/14) to match its top rating since March - since 3/30/14.
Key News Highlights:
ABC's "World News Tonight with David Muir" won the opening week of the 2014-15 season in Adults 25-54 (1.900 million) for the week of September 22, 2014, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. The ABC evening newscast outdelivered "NBC Nightly News" (1.821 million) by 79,000 news demo viewers to rank No. 1 during premiere week for the first time in 7 years - since w/o 9/24/07 of the 2007-08 season.
"World News Tonight" improved on the year-ago week (7.234 million and 1.832 million, respectively, on w/o 9/23/13) in Total Viewers (+8%) and Adults 25-54 (+4%). ABC drew its strongest premiere week, overall viewer audience in 6 years and best in the news demo in 3 years - since the opening weeks of the 2008-09 and 2011-12 seasons. "World News Tonight" grew the most in Total Viewers compared to "CBS Evening News" (+4%) and "NBC Nightly News" (+3%).
ABC News' "Good Morning America" won the opening week of the 2014-15 season across all key target demos: Total Viewers (5.531 million), Adults 25-54 (2.105 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.461 million) for the week of September 22, 2014, based on Live +Same Day Data from Nielsen Media Research. This marks the 3rd straight year for "GMA" to win premiere week in Total Viewers and Adults 25-54 and the 2nd time in the last 3 years in Adults 18-49.
"GMA" has won the last 31 weeks in both overall viewers and the key adult news demo since the end of the 2014 Winter Olympics. In Total Viewers, "GMA" has ranked No. 1 in 113 of the last 117 weeks (since w/o 6/25/12), finishing behind "Today" only during the two weeks of the 2012 Summer Olympics and the two weeks of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
"GMA" improved on the year-ago premiere week (2.067 million and 1.437 million, respectively, on w/o 9/23/13) in Adults 25-54 (+2%) and Adults 18-49 (+2%). "GMA" turned in its best opening week performance in 8 years in Adults 25-54 and in 3 years in Adults 18-49- since before the 1991-92 season, the 2006-07 season and the 2011-12 season, respectively. In contrast, "Today" posted double-digit losses from the year-ago premiere week in both adult demos (-14%/-10%).
"This Week" improved from its year-ago season premiere (on 9/29/13) for the 3rd straight year in both Total Viewers (+16% - 3.156 million vs. 2.731 million) and Adults 25-54 (+15% - 899,000 vs 785,000). In fact, "This Week" turned in its strongest season premiere performance in 6 years - since the 2008-09 season.
"Nightline" improved on its year-ago premiere week performance (for w/o 9/23/13) in Total Viewers (+9% - 1.702 million vs. 1.571 million) and Adults 18-49 (+2% - 527,000 vs. 516,000). In fact, "Nightline" drew the Net's largest overall opening week audience in the time slot in 7 years - since w/o 9/24/07 of the 2007-08 season.
Jimmy Kimmel Live Highlights:
ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" kicked off premiere week of the 2014-15 season with its biggest-ever opening-week audience (2.762 million) and 2nd-highest in 7 years with Adults 18-49 (836,000) - since 2007.
Winning Thursday of premiere week (9/25/14), "Kimmel" defeated NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" by 19% in Total Viewers (4.045 million vs. 3.405 million) and by 13% in Adults 18-49 (1.275 million vs. 1.129 million).
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