ABC's NEW YEAR'S ROCKIN' EVE is Week's No. 1 Entertainment Show

During the week of December 26, 2011, ABC aired 2 of the Top 4 non-sports TV programs in Adults 18-49, including the No. 1 non-sports show with "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest '12:" "New Year's Rockin' Eve '12" - No. 1 and "New Year's Rockin' Eve: 40th Anniversary" - No. 4. Drawing the annual special's biggest-ever audience since debuting on ABC in 2000, "New Year's Rockin' Eve '12" also finished as TV's most-watched entertainment program overall in primetime for the week. And although it aired outside of prime, the late-night portion of "New Year's Rockin" pulled in an average audience of 22.6 million viewers (11:30 p.m.-12:35 a.m.), achieving an 11-year high for the program - best since 2000.

Tuesday

Featuring comedy encores from 8:00-10:00 p.m. and a repeat drama at 10:00 p.m., ABC came in as the 2nd-most-watched TV network on Tuesday night (5.1 million) to CBS, outdrawing NBC by 89% (2.7 million) and Fox's repeat comedy lineup by 113% (2.4 million). In addition, ABC ran in a near-tie for first place on the night among its network rivals in Adults 18-49 with CBS (1.3/4 vs. 1.4/4 - pacing within 1-tenth of a rating point and tied in audience share).

· The Net scored double-digit week-to-week gains with viewers (+11%) and young adults (+18%) and also grew over the same night last year by 42% in Total Viewers and by 30% in Adults 18-49 (3.6 million and 1.0/3 on 12/28/10).

"Last Man Standing/Last Man Standing" (8:00-9:00 p.m.)

During the 8 o'clock hour, back-to-back replays of ABC's "Last Man Standing" earned second place with Total Viewers, outdrawing the overall audience of Fox's encore "Glee" by 181% (5.9 million vs. 2.1 million). The broad-appealing comedy also came in second versus its network rivals in the hour in Adults 18-49 (1.5/4), Men 18-49 and Women 18-49, while topping its net rivals in Teens 12-17 (tie) and Kids 2-11.

· ABC's "Last Man Standing" finished as Tuesday's No. 1 comedy for the 2nd straight week. Both episodes of "Last Man"(6.0 million and 1.5/4 at 8:00 p.m. and 5.7 million and 1.5/4 at 8:30 p.m.) towered over encores of Fox's "Glee"(2.1 million and 0.7/2) at 8:00 p.m., "New Girl" (2.8 million and 1.0/3) at 9:00 p.m. and "Raising Hope" (2.7 million and 0.9/2) at 9:30 p.m. with Total Viewers and Adults 18-49.

"The Middle" (9:00-9:30 p.m.)

In the 9 o'clock half-hour, ABC's repeat "The Middle" ranked No. 1 against its network rivals in Adults 18-49 (1.4/4), beating CBS' special presentation of "The 34th Annual Kennedy Center Honors" by 8% (1.3/4), Fox's replay of "New Girl" by 40% (1.0/3) and NBC's "The Biggest Loser 12: Where Are They Now?" by 56% (0.9/3). The repeat ABC sitcom led its net rivals in the half-hour in key Women (W18-34/W18-49).

· "The Middle" was up over the prior week's repeat in the time slot by 12% in Total Viewers and by 8% in Adults 18-49, marking its most-watched repeat on the night this season.

"Suburgatory" (9:30-10:00 p.m.)

At 9:30 p.m., ABC's replay "Suburgatory" led its network rivals in Adults 18-49 (1.2/3), beating its repeat comedy competition on Fox by 33% ("Raising Hope" = 0.9/2) and original programming on CBS by 20% (1.0/3). Like its lead-in, "Suburgatory" ranked No. 1 against its net rivals in its slot in Women 18-34 and Women 18-49.

· The freshman comedy posted sizable double-digit gains over its week-ago repeat in viewers (+24%) and young adults (+20%) to deliver its most-watched Tuesday repeat of the season.

"Body of Proof" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

ABC's repeat "Body of Proof" more than doubled NBC's encore drama ("Parenthood") in Total Viewers (+143% - 5.1 million vs. 2.1 million).

· "Body of Proof" grew week to week by 11% in Total Viewers and by 25% in Adults 18-49 to turn in its best-ever repeat number in Total Viewers.

Wednesday

With repeat comedies from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ("The Middle"/"Suburgatory"/"Modern Family"/"Happy Endings") and a replay of "Revenge" at 10:00 p.m., ABC (1.2/3) beat NBC by 50% (0.8/2) and Fox's encore comedy lineup (from 8:00-10:00 p.m.) by 20% (1.0/3) on Wednesday night among Adults 18-49. ABC also finished as the 2nd-most-watched broadcaster on the evening (4.0 million).

· At 8:00 p.m., ABC's replay of "The Middle" dominated its repeat comedy competition in the half-hour among Total Viewers (5.3 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.3/4), leading NBC's "Up All Night" by 1.9 million viewers and 30% in young adults (3.4 million and 1.0/3), and Fox's "Raising Hope" by 2.9 million viewers and 44% in young adults (2.4 million and 0.9/3).

· ABC's encore "Suburgatory" qualified as the 2nd-most-watched program (4.6 million) in the 8:30 p.m. half-hour, outdrawing NBC's "Whitney" by 1.9 million viewers (2.7 million) and Fox's "Raising Hope" by 2.4 million viewers (2.2 million). In addition, among young adults, the ABC freshman sitcom (1.4/4) defeated competing sitcoms on NBC by 56% (0.9/2) and on Fox by 75% (0.8/2).

· Standing as the top comedy of the night, ABC's replay "Modern Family" at 9:00 p.m. ranked No. 2 in its slot in both viewers and young adults, while finishing No. 1 with Women 18-34. Head to head against Fox's repeat "New Girl" in the half-hour, "Modern Family" more than doubled the Fox sitcom's overall audience (+124% - 5.6 million vs. 2.5 million), while outperforming it by 73% in Adults 18-49 (1.9/5 vs. 1.1/3).

· Like its lead-in, a replay of ABC's "Happy Endings" beat Fox's "New Girl" during the 9:30 p.m. half-hour in both Total Viewers (+21% - 3.5 million vs. 2.8 million) and Adults 18-49 (+9% - 1.2/3 vs. 1.1/3).

Thursday

"Happy New Year, Charlie Brown" (8:00-9:00 p.m.)

At 8:00 p.m., ABC's annual rebroadcast of "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown" earned second place against its network rivals with Adults 18-49 (1.1/3), leading Fox's encore "Bones" by 10% (1.0/3) and NBC's repeat comedies by 83% ("Community"/"Parks and Recreation" = 0.6/2). The animated holiday special topped its net rivals with Kids 2-11 (1.4/5).

Friday

"ABC Friday Movie of the Week" (8:00-11:00 p.m.)

With its rebroadcast of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" from 8:00-11:00 p.m., ABC ranked No. 1 against its network rivals on Friday evening with Adults 18-49 (1.0/3-tied w/CBS), leading Fox by 43% (0.7/2) and NBC's mostly original lineup by 11% (0.9/3). ABC also topped its net rivals among Adults 18-34, Women 18-34 and Kids 2-11.

Saturday

With its New Year's Eve lineup, featuring "New Year's Rockin' Eve: The 40th Anniversary Party" and "Dick Cark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2012," ABC finished a dominant No. 1 on the evening among Total Viewers (9.9 million) and Adults 18-49 (3.0/11), winning all 6 half-hours of the night and beating its combined network competition by 3.3 million viewers and by 76% with young adults (CBS, NBC and Fox combined = 6.6 million and 1.7/6).

· Among viewers and young adults, ABC marked its biggest New Year's Eve numbers during primetime in 11 years - since 12/31/00. Hitting season-highs on the night, ABC generated its most-watched Saturday night overall in more than 2 years - since 12/5/09 with coverage of the college football Big 12 Championship game.

"New Year's Rockin' Eve: The 40th Anniversary Party" (8:00-10:00 p.m.)

ABC took full control from 8:00-10:00 p.m. with "New Year's Rockin' Eve: The 40th Anniversary Party" leading its nearest broadcast competition (CBS) by 236% in viewers (8.4 million vs. 2.5 million) and by 400% with young adults (2.5/9 vs. 0.5/2).

"New Year's Rockin' Eve '12" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

Surging over its lead-in, ABC's broadcast of "Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2012" towered over the final hour of the night and ranked as the No. 1 TV program in prime with Total Viewers (12.9 million) and across each of the key Adult demos: Adults 18-34 (3.3/15), Adults 18-49 (4.1/15) and Adults 25-54 (5.0/15). In fact during the final hour of prime, "Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve" more than doubled the combined deliveries of CBS and NBC with Total Viewers (+105% - 12.9 million vs. 6.3 million) and Adults 18-49 (+156% - 4.1/15 vs. 1.6/6).

· Head-to-head from 10:00-11:00 p.m., ABC's "Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest" crushed NBC's "New Year's Eve with Carson Daly Prime" (3.1 million and 0.9/3) by 9.8 million viewers and by 356% in Adults 18-49.

· "Dick Clark's Primetime New Year's Rockin' Eve" pulled in its biggest audience ever on ABC - the special premiered on the Net in 2000. The show shot up over last year's telecast by 3.7 million viewers and by 46% in Adults 18-49 (9.2 million and 2.8/11 on 12/31/10).

Source: The Nielsen Company, National, Live+ Same Day Program Ratings, week of 12/26/11.

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