ABC Takes Second on Tuesday with Adults 18-49

via press release:

Quick Take for Tuesday, July 7, 2009

(Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings)

ABC Takes Second on Tuesday with Adults 18-49, Posting

Its Strongest Non-Sports Numbers on the Night This Summer

ABC’s “Superstars” Finishes No. 2 from 8-9pm in Adults 18-49,

Growing Week to Week in Total Viewers, Key Women and Men 18-34

A Special “20/20” Attracts ABC’s Biggest Non-Sports

Summer Audience in Tuesday’s 9pm Hour Since Last July

Hitting Series Highs and Winning the 10pm Hour, ABC News’ “Primetime: Family Secrets” Marks the Net’s Top Non-Sports Summer Results in the Slot in Over 2 Years

Tuesday Night (8:00-11:00 p.m.)

ABC earned second place on Tuesday night among Adults 18-49, turning in its strongest non-sports numbers on the night this summer with viewers (6.2 million) and young adults (1.9/6).

“Superstars” (8:00-9:00 p.m.)

ABC’s “Superstars” earned second place in the 8 o’clock hour among Adults 18-49 (1.3/5-tie) and key Men (M18-49 - 1.2/4 and M25-54 - 1.5/5), beating NBC’s series debut of “Great American Road Trip” on the latter two measures.

• “Superstars” was up week to week in Viewers, key Women (W18-49/W25-54) and Men 18-34.

“A Special Edition of 20/20: Remembering Michael Jackson” (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

Building on its lead-in at 9:00 p.m. against NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” ABC News’ “20/20” special took second place in the hour among Adults 18-49 (1.8/5-tie), attracting the Network’s biggest non-sports summer audience (5.7 million) in the time period since last July and its top young adult number since last August – since 7/29/08 and 8/5/08, respectively.

“Primetime Family Secrets: The Children of Michael Jackson” (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

ABC News’ “Primetime Family Secrets” jumped up into the No. 1 position at 10:00 p.m., beating out second-place NBC’s “Dateline” in the hour by 2.3 million viewers (8.6 million vs. 6.3 million) and by 13% in Adults 18-49 (2.6/7 vs. 2.3/7). The program focused on Michael Jackson’s children, including a rarely seen interview with Debbie Rowe, his ex-wife.  “Primetime” stood as the No. 2 TV show of the night in Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54, trailing only NBC’s hit summer series, “America’s Got Talent,” in the 9 o’clock hour.

• In Total Viewers and key Adults (AD18-49/AD25-54), “Primetime: Family Secrets” generated ABC’s top non-sports summer numbers in the time period in more than 2 years – since 5/29/07.  

• Growing its overall audience for the 2nd straight week, the “Primetime: Family Secrets” numbers shot up week to week by 5.0 million viewers and by 189% in Adults 18-49 (3.6 million and 0.9/3 on 6/30/09).  In fact the third-year ABC News program hit series-high numbers on both Nielsen measures.

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 32% currently, from 25% at the same point in 2008. 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), 7/7/09.