ABC TV Ratings for Sunday, March 4, 2012

The alphabet network puts their spin on last night’s ratings for their Sunday night line up. You can check out our ratings pages for America’s Funniest Home Videos, Once Upon a Time, Desperate Housewives, and GCB to see the week-to-week ratings trends, averages, rankings, and more.

Here’s the press release from ABC about the Sunday, March 4, 2012 ratings:

ABC Dominates Sunday with a Strong Open for “GCB”

Some early info on ABC’s Sunday, ahead of the regular press release.

ABC dominated Sunday night in Adults 18-49 over all-original competition on the other nets, outdelivering CBS by 24%, Fox by 30% and NBC by 53%. It was ABC’s 3rd straight night this week to rank #1 in the key young adult sales demo.

· In Adults 18-49, the Net matched its top-rated Sunday with regular programming in 1-year – since 3/6/11.

ABC’s America’s Funniest Home Videos ranked a strong #1 during the 7 o’clock hour in Adults 18-49, beating out runner-up CBS’ 60 Minutes by 38%.

· Hitting season highs for its 3rd consecutive airing, America’s Funniest Home Videos rose 10% over its last broadcast to equal its best Adult 18-49 number in well over 2 years – since 1/31/10.

Gaining ground for its 2nd straight broadcast (coming off a pre-emption the prior week for the Oscars), ABC’s Once Upon a Time won the 8 o’clock hour in viewers and young adults to finish as Sunday’s #1 broadcast among Adults 18-49. Dominating from 8-9pm with young adults, ABC’s Once Upon a Time outran CBS’ The Amazing Race by 21%, Fox’s animated comedies by 48% (The Simpsons/Napoleon Dynamite) and NBC’s encore Celebrity Apprentice by 209%.

· Growing its numbers for its 2nd telecast in a row, Once Upon a Time was up over its last airing two weeks ago by 8% in Total Viewers and by 10% in Adults 18-49 to mark its best performance since the end of January – since 1/29/12.

Up over its most-recent airing two weeks ago in viewers (+8%) and young adults (+14%), ABC’s Desperate Housewives led the pack in the 9 o’clock hour with young adults (tied w/Fox’s comedies), outpacing NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice by 14%, and CBS’ The Good Wife by 39%.

· Housewives drew its biggest audience in 8 weeks and hit a 6-week high with young adults – since 1/8/12 and 1/22/12, respectively.

Exhibiting strong retention of its Housewives lead-in (93% in viewers/88% in young adults) during the 10 o’clock hour, ABC’s series debut of GCB finished a solid #2 in its slot against established competition, drawing 9% more viewers than the second half of NBC’s 2-hour Celebrity Apprentice and beating out CBS’ veteran CSI: Miami by 10% in Adults 18-49. The new ABC drama ranked #1 in its time period with Adults 18-34 and across all key Women (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).

· In viewers and young adults, GCB produced a 5-month high for ABC with regular programming in the time period – since 10/2/11.

· The new drama improved its hour year to year, outperforming Brothers & Sisters on the same night in both viewers (+3%) and young adults (+5%).