ABC Wins the Opening Night of the November Sweep for the First Time in 6 Years

Photo Credit: ABC

With IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN, GREY'S ANATOMY and SCANDAL, ABC won the opening night of the November Sweep for the first time in 6 years (since 2007) in Adults 18-49, leading runner up CBS by 30% (2.6/8 vs. 2.0/6). In fact, the Network finished No. 1 in 5 of 6 half-hours on the evening.

· ABC's SCANDAL and GREY'S ANATOMY stood as the Top 2 TV shows of the night in Adults 18-49, respectively. In fact, it was SCANDAL's first time ever to hold the No. 1 show position on Thursday.

On Halloween, overall Adult 18-49 TV usage levels on Thursday were down 8% week to week (32.1 vs. 34.9).

IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN (8:00-9:00 p.m. - 7.0 million and 2.2/8 in AD18-49):

From 8:00-9:00 p.m., ABC's encore telecast of IT'S THE GREAT PUMPKIN, CHARLIE BROWN beat NBC's SNL HALLOWEEN special by 29% in Adults 18-49 (2.2/8 vs. 1.7/6) and nearly tied for CBS' comedies for the lead in the hour, beating THE MILLERS from 8:30-9:00 p.m. (2.1/7 vs. 2.0/7).

· In viewers and young adults, the PEANUTS Halloween special delivered ABC's best numbers in the time period in 1 year - since 11/1/12. In addition, it posted the Net's highest Kids 2-11 rating in the hour since December 2011 - since 12/15/11.

GREY'S ANATOMY (9:00-10:00 p.m. - 8.9 million and 2.6/8 in AD18-49):

ABC's GREY'S ANATOMY dominated the 9 o'clock hour in Adults 18-49 (2.6/8), leading CBS' comedies by 30% (THE BIG BANG THEORY/TWO AND A HALF MEN = 2.0/6) and for the 4th week in a row more than doubled NBC's comedies (+117% over SEAN SAVES THE WORLD/THE MICHAEL J. FOX SHOW = 1.2/3).

· Gaining week to week (+2%), GREY'S ANATOMY drew its biggest audience in 4 weeks - since 10/3/13.

SCANDAL (10:00-11:00 p.m. - 9.2 million and 2.9/9 in AD18-49):

Building on its GREY'S lead-in for the 5th week running in Adults 18-49 (+12%) at 10:00 p.m., ABC's SCANDAL (2.9/9) nearly beat the combined delivery of its CBS and NBC drama competition in the hour, outdelivering "Elementary" by 71% (1.7/5) and PARENTHOOD by 123% (1.3/4).

· Despite the decline in TV usage levels, SCANDAL was up 7% week to week in Total Viewers and retained 100% of its Adult 18-49 audience.

Social Stats: SCANDAL was once again Thursday's No. 1 most social TV series with 193,783 tweets.

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 46% at the same point in 2012. 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, 10/31/13. Socialguide 10/31/13, Total Tweets for each episode +/- 3hrs during telecast.