After a 10 Months off the Air, ABC Returns its Wednesday Night Lineup,Earning Second in Adults 18-49 and Winning the Evening in Adults 18-34; ABC Spin

Jumping Sharply from its Lead-in, "Private Practice" Returns to Dominate the
9pm Hour and Ranks as the Night's No. 1 TV Show in Adults 18-34 and Key Women

"Dirty Sexy Money" Dominates its Sophomore Drama Competition in the 10pm
Hour, NBC's "Lipstick Jungle," and Paces Ahead of Where it Finished Last Season

Wednesday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.)
Returning with its Wednesday night drama lineup for the first time in 10 months, ABC took second place to CBS on Wednesday night among Adults 18-49 (2.6/7), while ranking No. 1 on the night with Adults 18-34 (2.4/7) and Women 18-34 (3.4/9). In fact the Net posted its best Wednesday numbers since early January (1/9/08) in Adults 18-34 and Women 18-34.

"Pushing Daisies" (8:00-9:00 p.m.)
On its return to the time period, in its first original telecast since 12/12/07, ABC's "Pushing Daisies" topped NBC's Week 2 of "Knight Rider" by wide margins during the 8 o'clock hour across the Women demos: W18-34 +41% (2.4/7 vs. 1.7/5), W18-49 +29% (2.7/7 vs. 2.1/6) and W25-54 +27% (3.3/8 vs. 2.6/6). "Daisies" grew its Adult 18-34 audience from start to finish by 13% (1.6/6 to 1.8/6).

"Private Practice" (9:00-10:00 p.m.)
Building sharply on its lead-in during the 9 o'clock hour, opposite competition including CBS' "Criminal Minds" and the season finale of NBC's "America's Got Talent," the sophomore season opener of "Private Practice" dominated its time slot and stood as Wednesday's No. 1 TV program among Adults 18-34 (3.4/10) and key women: W18-34 (5.2/13) and W18-49 (4.8/11-tie).

* "Private Practice" generated ABC's biggest audience (8.0 million) and highest Adult 18-49 rating (3.2/8) in the time period in 8 months - since 2/27/08. Additionally, the series posted its top Women 18-34 number since mid November (11/14/07), topping its final 2 original airings last season.

"Dirty Sexy Money" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)
In the final hour of the night opposite CBS' veteran drama "C.S.I.: NY" and NBC's "Lipstick Jungle," "Dirty Sexy Money" took a solid second in its time period, beating its sophomore drama competition ("Lipstick Jungle") by 1.8 million viewers (7.1 million vs. 5.3 million) and by 32% in Adults 18-49 (2.5/7 vs. 1.9/5).

* "Dirty Sexy Money" finished ahead of where it left off in its freshman season in December, topping its most recent original telecast by 6% in Total Viewers and by 9% in Adults 18-49 (12/5/07 - 6.7 million and 2.3/6).

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 28% currently, from 20% at the same point in 2007. 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: Nielsen Media Research (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 10/1/08.