Sunday Night Ratings: Strong Debut For ONCE UPON A TIME, DESPERATE Rises, PAN AM Doesn't Fall, GOOD WIFE Down

The strong debut of ONCE UPON A TIME helped the entire ABC lineup on Sunday night.

More than doubling its Adult 18-49 lead-in at 8:00 p.m. (+160%) and gaining audience throughout its premiere against the World Series and Sunday Night Football, ABC's series debut of ONCE UPON A TIME opened with an average audience of 12.8 million viewers and a 3.9 rating, 10 share among Adults 18-49, standing as Sunday's No. 1 non-sports program.

The show opened as TV's No. 1 drama debut this season in Adults 18-49 and as the top-rated in more than 1 year - since 9/20/10. ABC now claims the season's Top 2 drama debuts with ONCE UPON A TIME and REVENGE.

Gaining 11% week to week, DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES (3.0/7) defeated CBS' THE GOOD WIFE (2.0/5) by a best-yet 50% in Adults 18-49, dominating the CBS drama for the 5th straight telecast this season. DH stood as Sunday's No. 2 series with young adults, behind only ONCE.

During the 10 o'clock hour, PAN AM qualified as the No. 1 drama with Adults 18-34 (1.4/4) and Women 18-34 (1.9/5), qualifying as the hour's top-drama for the 5th week in a row on the latter measure. CSI: MIAMI had more total viewers.

DIRTY SOAP did not make the Top 100 cable shows for Adults 25-54 and its lead-in, KENDRA, dropped in viewers and in the A18-49 demo this week, so it's probably not good news in the ratings department.

The second episode of THE WALKING DEAD slipped two tenths of a point to a still impressive 3.6 Adults 18-49 rating, still more than double the next closest competitor on cable. The 10:30 p.m. encore of the show scored a 1.0 Adults 18-49 rating and it managed a 0.5 Adults 18-49 rating at midnight.

HBO's BOARDWALK EMPIRE rose one tenth to a 1.1 adults 18-49 rating.