Primetime Ratings Report For the week of February 19, 2007
ABC Posts its Strongest Week in Viewers and Adults 18-49 in Over 1 Year
ABC Claims 6 of the Week�s Top 20 TV Programs in Adults 18-49, as the
�79th Annual Academy Awards� Ranks No. 1 in Viewers and All Key Adults
ABC�s �Oscars� Qualify as TV�s Most-Watched Entertainment Telecast This Season
For the 3rd Straight Week, ABC News Airs the No. 1 Newsmagazine in Adults 18-49
ABC�s �Wife Swap� Scores Season-High Numbers in Viewers and Adults 18-49
With its Best Rating Since October, ABC�s �What About Brian�
Defeats NBC�s �Studio 60� Monday at 10pm Among Adults 18-49
�Lost� Grows its Overall Audience Week to Week, Standing as Wednesday�s
No. 1 Scripted TV Program in Adults 18-49 for the 3rd Consecutive Week
ABC Wins All 4 Thursdays of the 2007 February Sweep in Adults 18-49, the
Net�s First Time in Any Sweep to Win Each Thursday in at Least 15 Years
Drawing Even Higher Numbers Than Fox�s Special �American Idol,� ABC�s
�Grey�s Anatomy� is Thursday�s No. 1 TV Show in Viewers and Adults 18-49
Marking its Second-Highest-Ever Numbers, ABC�s �Grey�s Anatomy� Beats CBS� �C.S.I.� at 9pm by a Best-Ever 5.6 Million Viewers and 71% Among Adults 18-49
Dominating Thursday�s 10 O�clock Hour, �The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special�
Produces ABC�s Top Non-Sports Numbers in the Time Slot in Over 4 Years
�Barbara Walters Oscar Special� Wins its Sunday Time Period in
Viewers and Young Adults, with the Show�s Best Numbers in 5 Years
The �Academy Awards� Grow by 1.3 Million Viewers Year to Year,
Posting the Annual Telecast�s Highest Adult 18-34 Number in 5 Years
WEEK No. 23:
For the second week in a row, ABC (4.7/12) held the No. 2 position to Fox among Adults 18-49, besting CBS by 47% (3.2/8) and NBC by 81% (2.6/7) in the current week. Fox�s weekly averages got a bigger boost than usual from scheduling 5 hours of �American Idol� over 3 nights, 1/3 (33%) of its 15-hour schedule. ABC also took second place during the week among Total Viewers (13.0 million).
� ABC attracted its largest weekly audience and top week with Adults 18-49 in more than 1 year � since the week of 1/30/06, when the Net carried the 2006 �Super Bowl.�
National Numbers for the �79th Annual Academy Awards�: Based on the national ratings issued by Nielsen today, ABC�s broadcast of the �79th Annual Academy Awards� came in with 40.2 million viewers on average, up by +1.3 million viewers from the year-ago telecast (38.9 million). The 2007 �Oscars� were also up year to year in Adults 18-49, Adults 18-34, as well as across each of the key women demographics. The Ellen DeGeneres-hosted �Academy Awards� hit a 5-year-high with Adults 18-34 and tied its best Women 18-34 number in 6 years [Additional �Oscar� ratings are under the �Sunday Night� section of this release].
Weekly Rankings: ABC aired 6 of the week�s Top 20 TV programs in Adults 18-49, placing 4 in the Top 10: �Academy Awards� � No. 1, �Grey�s Anatomy� � No. 4, �Road to the Oscars 2007� � No. 6, �Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special� � No. 8, �Lost� � No. 11 and �Barbara Walters Oscar Special� � No. 16. The �Academy Awards� stood as the No. 1 show of the week in viewers and across the adult demos (AD18-34/AD18-48/AD25-54), also qualifying as TV�s most-watched entertainment telecast of the 2006-07 TV Season. ABC�s �Grey�s Anatomy� topped all three editions of Fox�s �American Idol� among Adults 18-34 during the week to rank as the No. 2 TV program, behind only the �Oscars.� For the third week in a row, ABC News claimed the No. 1 newsmagazine in Adults 18-49 (�20/20� on Friday).
Monday
�Wife Swap� (8:00-9:00 p.m.)
�Wife Swap� hit season-high ratings in the time period in Total Viewers (9.0 million), Adults 18-49 (3.7/10 - tied) and Women 18-49 (5.1/12).
�Supernanny� (9:00-10:00 p.m.)
ABC�s �Supernanny� placed second to NBC�s �Heroes� in the hour among Women 18-34 (4.5/11), Teens 12-17 (2.2/6) and Kids 2-11 (1.9/7).
�What About Brian� (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
Matching its best young adult delivery since October (10/30/06), �What About Brian� outperformed NBC�s �Studio 60� by 13% in Adults 18-49 (2.7/7 vs. 2.4/6).
Wednesday
�Lost� (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
At 10:00 p.m., ABC�s �Lost� continued to deliver enormous increases from its lead-in, shooting up by 7.7 million viewers (13.0 million vs. 5.3 million) and by 159% in Adults 18-49 (5.7/15 vs. 2.2/5). Despite CBS� advantage coming into the hour from an original �Criminal Minds,� �Lost� moved ABC into a dominant No. 1 position in the 10 o�clock hour across the key adult demos, beating CBS� time period veteran �C.S.I.: NY� by even wider margins this week: AD18-34 +100% (5.4/15 vs. 2.7/8), AD18-49 +46% (5.7/15 vs. 3.9/10) and AD25-54 +27% (6.2/15 vs. 4.9/12). ABC�s younger-appealing drama also led the hour by 106% among Teens 12-17 over its nearest competition (3.3/12 vs. 1.6/6 � CBS).
� �Lost� grew its overall Total Viewer count week to week (13.0 million vs. 12.8 million) and was also up among Adults 18-34 (+6% - 5.4/15 vs. 5.1/15), across the key men demos (+28% in M18-34 � 5.0/16 vs. 3.9/13, +8% in M18-49 � 5.2/15 vs. 4.8/13 and +4% in M25-54 � 5.4/14 vs. 5.2/13) and among Teens 12-17 (+22% - 3.3/12 vs. 2.7/10). The show delivered it best-yet Teen 12-17 number in its new time period.
� For the third straight week, ABC�s �Lost� stood as Wednesday�s No. 1 scripted TV program in the key Adult 18-49 demographic. It was also the night�s top-rated scripted series for the third week in a row with Adults 25-54, Adults 18-34 and Teens 12-17.
� �Lost� is greatly improving its new time period for ABC over the same nights last year, growing the hour as a lead-in to Network affiliates� late-local news by 5.4 million viewers (13.4 million vs. 8.0 million), by 79% in Adults 18-49 (5.9/15 vs. 3.3/8) and by 68% in Adults 25-54 (6.4/15 vs. 3.8/9). In fact, �Lost� qualifies as ABC�s most-watched series in the Wednesday 10 o�clock hour in 9 years and its top-rated among Adults 18-49 in 10 years � since the 1997-98 and 1996-97 TV Seasons, respectively.
Thursday
Although Fox scheduled a special additional telecast of �American Idol� in Thursday�s 8 o�clock hour against a repeat �Grey�s Anatomy,� ABC ranked No. 1 for the sixth straight Thursday � winning the evening on all 4 weeks during the 2007 February Sweep -- among Adults 18-49 (7.0/17). In the key young adult sales demographic, ABC beat second-place Fox�s prime by 17% (7.0/17 vs. 6.0/14). ABC was also Thursday�s most-watched network, topping its nearest competition by 1.1 million viewers (17.6 million vs. 16.5 million � CBS). The Network also marked its sixth consecutive Thursday as the No. 1 television network in Adults 18-34 (6.7/18). ABC�s �Grey�s Anatomy� outdrew Fox�s special Thursday �American Idol� to rank as the night�s No. 1 TV program in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49.
� ABC generated its biggest Thursday audience this season and its second-highest Adult 18-49 number. In fact it was the Net�s largest non-sports audience on the evening since February 2003 � since 2/6/03.
� Versus the same night last February, ABC�s Thursday numbers were up by 1.6 million viewers and by 46% in Adults 18-49 (16.0 million and 4.8/11 on 2/23/06).
�Grey�s Anatomy� (8:00-9:00 p.m.)
Against Fox�s �American Idol� at 8:00 p.m., a repeat airing of �Grey�s Anatomy� delivered a solid 9.7 million viewers and a 3.3 rating, 8 share among Adults 18-49. The replay �Grey�s� ranked No. 2 with Women 18-34 (4.2/10), beating original competition including CBS� �Survivor: Fiji� (3.5/9) and NBC�s comedies (�My Name is Earl�/�The Office� = 3.9/10).
�Grey�s Anatomy� (9:00-10:01 p.m.)
Thursday�s No. 1 TV program in viewers and young adults, ABC's �Grey's Anatomy� overshadowed CBS� �C.S.I.� at 9:00 p.m. �Grey�s� outdelivered �C.S.I.� by a best-ever margin of 5.6 million viewers (27.4 million vs. 21.8 million) and by 71% in Adults 18-49 (11.6/27 vs. 6.8/16). ABC�s medical drama has now defeated the CBS crime procedural in Adults 18-49 on all 15 of their original head-to-head match-ups in the time period this season.
� Trailing only its post-�Super Bowl� telecast a year ago February, �Grey�s Anatomy� tallied its strongest-ever performance for a regularly scheduled telecast of the series in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49. It matched a series-high in Women 18-34 (17.0/37), tying the post-�Super Bowl� airing.
� �Grey's Anatomy� offered ABC its largest audience in the Thursday 9 o�clock time period with series programming since May 2000 � since 5/4/00. It was ABC�s top Adult 18-49 series number in the slot since at least September 1991 � pre-dating the start of Nielsen�s electronic database.
� Excluding only its own post-�Super Bowl� airing, �Grey�s� turned in the highest-rated drama telecast on all of TV among Adults 18-49 since October 2005 � since 10/2/05. It was also TV�s highest-rated scripted series telecast this season with young adults.
�The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special� (10:01-11:00 p.m.)
ABC's broadcast of �The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special� dominated Thursday�s 10 o�clock hour, against originals episodes of NBC�s �ER� and CBS� �Shark.� The Oprah special topped its nearest competition in the time period by 1.3 million viewers (15.5 million vs. 14.2 million � CBS) and by 46% in Adults 18-49 (6.0/16 vs. 4.1/11 � NBC).
� �The Oprah Winfrey Oscar Special� produced ABC�s largest audience and top Adult 18-49 rating in the time period with non-sports programming in more than 4 years � since 2/6/03. The show generated ABC�s highest Women 18-34 rating (8.7/23) in the time period in well over 9-1/2 years � since 5/1/97.
Sunday
With coverage of the �79th Annual Academy Awards� ABC overshadowed its combined network competition on Sunday evening. During primetime, ABC outdrew the other networks combined by 7.7 million viewers (32.8 million vs. 25.1 million � CBS, NBC, Fox and CW together) and by 30% in Adults 18-49 (11.3/27 vs. 8.7/21 � CBS, NBC, Fox and CW).
�Barbara Walters Oscar Special� (7:00 - 8:00 p.m.)
Winning its hour in viewers and young adults, ABC�s �Barbara Walters Oscar Special� drew an average audience of 14.5 million viewers and delivered a 4.7 rating, 12 share among Adults 18-49.
� The annual �Barbara Walters Oscar Special� delivered its best viewer and young adult numbers in 5 years � since the 2002 telecast.
�Road to the Oscars 2007� (8:00 - 8:30 p.m.)
With the red carpet show, �Road to the Oscars 2007,� ABC drew an average audience of 27.1 million viewers and an 8.9 rating, 22 share in Adults 18-49 from 8:00-8:30 p.m., ranking a dominant No. 1 in the half-hour.
The �79th Annual Academy Awards� (8:30 p.m. - 11:59 p.m.)
ABC�s telecast of the �79th Annual Academy Awards� drew an average audience of 40.2 million viewers and posted a 14.1 rating, 33 share among Adults 18-49.
� The 2007 �Academy Awards� telecast was up over last year in both Total Viewers (40.2 million vs. 38.9 million) and Adults 18-49 (14.1/33 rating vs. 13.9/33). The �Oscars� telecast was also up 8% over last year in Adults 18-34 (13.0/34 vs. 12.0/32), while delivering ratings increases across the key women demographics: Women 18-34 +16% (16.4/39 vs. 14.1/36), Women 18-49 +6% (17.2/39 vs. 16.2/37) and Women 25-54 + 4% (19.2/40 vs. 18.5/39). In fact the Ellen DeGeneres-hosted �Oscars� posted the annual show�s highest Adult 18-34 rating in 5 years and matched its best Women 18-34 number in 6 years � since the 2002 and 2001 telecasts, respectively.
� TV�s most-watched entertainment telecast of the 2006-07 TV Season, the average audience for ABC�s �79th Annual Academy Awards� (40.2 million) far surpassed other awards shows this season, including the 2006 �Emmy Awards� (16.2 million), the 2007 �Golden Globes� (20.0 million) and the 2007 �Grammy Awards� (20.1 million).
� The �79th Annual Academy Awards� reached an estimated 74.84 million television viewers across the U.S. � unduplicated viewers watching 6 minutes or more during the 3-1/2 hour telecast. Nielsen reports that 87.03 million watched at least 1 minute or more of the broadcast.
Source: Nielsen Media Research, NTI (Live+SD or Most Current), week of 2/19/07, or as dated.
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