ABC's “Betrayal” Outperforms its CBS Drama Competition with Women 18-34

Against strong sports-driven competition from NBC's Sunday Night Football and an NFL overrun-fueled CBS, ABC drew 15% more viewers than FOX on Sunday night (5.3 million vs. 4.6 million). ABC's "Once Upon a Time" was Sunday's No. 1 drama in Adults 18-49, outdelivering CBS' NFL-boosted "The Good Wife" and "The Mentalist."

"Once Upon a Time" (8:00-9:00 p.m. - 7.7 million and 2.5/7 in AD18-49)
More than quadrupling its repeat lead-in at 8:00 p.m. (+317% - over an encore of last week's premiere episode), ABC's "Once Upon a Time" retained 96% of its week-ago premiere in Adults 18-49 (pacing within 1-tenth of a rating point). In addition, the ABC drama held 100% of its premiere audience in Adults 18-34. "Once Upon a Time" was the No. 1 entertainment program in its hour with key Women: W18-49 (3.2/9) and W18-34 (2.9/9).

"Revenge" (9:00-10:00 p.m. - 6.7 million and 1.9/5 in AD18-49)
During the 9 o'clock hour, ABC's "Revenge" topped Fox's comedies by nearly 2.0 million viewers ("Family Guy"/"American Dad" = 4.8 million) and beat out its non-sports competition with Women 18-49 (2.6/6).

L+3 Day Ratings: Last week's "Revenge" premiere gained a full Adult 18-49 rating point in the L+3 numbers (+43%) and the percentage increase was considerably higher for this year's premiere than for last year's opener (+43% vs. +28%). "Revenge" was also Sunday's biggest overall gainer in L+3, adding on another +2.5 million viewers to its L+SD tally.

"Betrayal" (10:00-11:00 p.m. - 4.0 million and 1.1/3 in AD18-49)
During the 10 o'clock hour, ABC's "Betrayal" defeated its CBS drama competition ("Good Wife"/"Mentalist") with Women 18-34 (1.4/4 vs. 1.2/4).

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 48% currently, from 45% at the same point in 2011. 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: The Nielsen Company, Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings, 10/06/13.

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