ABC Ratings for Friday, January 20, 2012

The ABC network puts their spin on the ratings for Friday night’s season premieres of Shark Tank and Primetime: What Would You Do?, as well as 20/20. The press release is below. Keep in mind that they’re using the fast affiliate data and not the finals.

Want more ratings data? Check out our updated show-specific ratings pages for Shark Tank, Primetime: What Would You Do?, and 20/20. You also might find our ABC show status page and ABC season report card of interest.

ABC Wins Friday with Strong Turnouts for its Entire Lineup

With the season premieres of Shark Tank and Primetime: What Would You Do?, followed by 20/20, ABC ranked a definitive #1 on Friday in Adults 18-49, leading the night for the 2nd week in a row and achieving a season-high. Holding double-digit advantages over its rivals, ABC beat out NBC on the evening by 21%, Fox by 32% and CBS by 55%.

· Building its numbers on the night for the 3rd straight week, the Net scored Friday season-highs with both Total Viewers and Adults 18-49.

In the 8 o’clock hour, the season opener of ABC’s Shark Tank won its time period in Adults 18-49, topping runner-up Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares by 13%.

· Building sharply on its season premiere in the hour last year with viewers (+35%) and young adults (+42%) to deliver the series’ most-watched telecast ever, Shark Tank drew ABC’s biggest audience in the time period with non-sports programming in nearly 3-1/2 years and its highest Adult 18-49 number since October 2010 – since 9/26/08 and 10/29/10, respectively.

During the 9pm hour, the season premiere of Primetime: What Would You Do? ran a close second in its slot with Adults 18-49, nearly tying NBC’s Grimm (tied in audience share) and dominating Fox’s Fringe (+45%). The ABC newsmagazine delivered the #1 position in the hour with Women 18-49.

· Primetime: What Would You Do? drew the series’ biggest audience since November 2010 and its highest Adult 18-49 number since February 2011 – since 11/12/10 and 2/18/11, respectively.

During the 10pm hour, ABC’s 20/20 dominated its time period to stand as the Friday’s #1 TV show with Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54. In addition, 20/20 once again registered as the night’s #1 newsmagazine, beating out NBC’s Dateline by considerable margins in head-to-head competition among Total Viewers (+31%), Adults 25-54 (+47%) and Adults 18-49 (+29%). ABC’s 20/20 featured reporting by Chris Cuomo, Elizabeth Vargas and Deborah Roberts on the Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy off the coast of Tuscany, Italy.

· Marking its 2nd strongest performance this season, 20/20 turned in its biggest numbers in 13 weeks with Total Viewers and key Adults (AD18-49/AD25-54) – since 10/21/11.

What do you think? Did you watch any of these shows on Friday night?

Image courtesy ABC.

More about: 20/20: ratings, Primetime: ratings, Shark Tank: ratings

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