Primetime Ratings Report For the week of July 27, 2009 (Based on National Live + Same Day Program Ratings)

ABC Claims 4 of the Top 15 TV Programs for the Week in Adults 18-49, Including the No. 1 Show with the 5th Season Finale of "The Bachelorette"

ABC Generates its Biggest Overall Audience in 5 Weeks

ABC News Airs TV's No. 1 Newsmagazine in Adults 18-49 for the 4th Straight Week

Posting Summer-High Numbers, ABC Dominates Monday Night in Viewers And Young Adults, Winning in Adults 18-49 for the 4th Time in 5 Weeks

Season Closer of "The Bachelorette" Posts Show's Most-Watched Telecast in 5 Years

"The Bachelorette" Finale Hits Season-Highs, Marking Net's Biggest Non-Sports Summer Audience in the Time Slot in 8 Years and Top Adult 18-49 Rating in 7 Years

No. 1 in its Monday Slot in Young Adults for the 2nd Straight Week, "Dating in the Dark" Holds All its Debut Numbers to Stand as the Summer's No. 1 New TV Series

More than Doubling its Lead-in, "The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose" Wins Tuesday's 10pm Hour with Viewers and All Key Adult Demographics

In its Time-Slot, "After the Final Rose" Delivers Multi-Year Summer Highs For ABC in Viewers and Young Adults with Entertainment Programming

ABC Grows its Wednesday Audience Year to Year for 8 Weeks Running

ABC's Repeat "Wipeout" Beats NBC's Repeat "America's Got Talent" Wednesday at 8pm in Viewers and Adults 18-49, Topping Fox's Original "Dance" in Viewers 12-17

"Wipeout" Marks Highest-Ever Repeat Numbers in Viewers and All Key Adult Demos

For the 2nd Consecutive Week, ABC's Replay "America's Funniest Home Videos" Places No. 1 in Sunday's 7pm Hour with Adults 18-49

Head-to-Head on Sunday Night, ABC's Debut of "Defying Gravity" Beats Part 2 of NBC's "The Storm" by 10% in Adults 18-49, and in its Regular 10-11pm Slot Logs the Net's 2nd-Highest Non-Sports Number This Summer

WEEK No. 45:

Rankings: ABC claimed of 4 of the Top 15 highest-rated TV programs for the week in Adults 18-49, including the No. 1 show with the 5th season finale of "The Bachelorette": "The Bachelorette" - No. 1, "The Bachelorette: After the Rose" - No. 5, "Dating in the Dark" - No. 10 and "Wipeout - R" - No. 11. "The Bachelorette" also finished out the week as the No. 1 TV program with Adults 18-34 and across each of the key Women demos (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54). Although it was in repeat, ABC's "Wipeout" stood as the week's highest-rated broadcast program among Kids 2-11. ABC News' "Primetime: Crime" qualified as TV's No. 1 newsmagazine for the week in Adults 18-49 (tied). In fact, it was the 4th straight week and 5th time in the last 6 weeks that ABC News aired the No. 1 newsmagazine among Adults 18-49.

* ABC attracted its biggest overall audience (4.4 million) in 5 weeks - since w/o 6/22/09.

Monday

Building on the previous week and hitting summer highs for the 3rd week in a row in viewers and young adults, ABC posted a dominant win on Monday with the season finale of "The Bachelorette" and Week 2 of "Dating in the Dark." ABC beat out second-place CBS by 1.4 million viewers (8.7 million vs. 7.3 million) and by 48% in Adults 18-49 (3.1/9 vs. 2.1/6). Winning each half-hour of the night, ABC led Monday in the key Adults 18-49 sales demo for the 2nd week running and for the 4th time in the last 5 weeks.

"The Bachelorette" (8:00-10:02 p.m.)

Turning in its strongest numbers of the season, the season finale of "The Bachelorette" towered above its 2-hour time period competition to qualify as Monday's No. 1 TV program in both Total Viewers (10.0 million) and Adults 18-49 (3.5/10 - 2nd week in a row). In fact, the fifth-season ender marked ABC's biggest non-sports summer audience in the time period in 7 years and its highest-rating among Adults 18-49 in 8 years - since 7/8/02 and 5/28/01, respectively. In addition, the 5th season closer of "The Bachelorette" generated the show's most-watched telecast in over 5 years - since the Season 2 finale on 2/25/04.

* "The Bachelorette" saw its audience grow by 3.0 million viewers (8.7 million to 11.7 million) and 45% in Adults 18-49 (2.9/10 to 4.2/11) from 8:00-10:00 p.m., with Bachelorette Jillian giving the final rose to Ed.

* "The Bachelorette" saw increases over its year-ago season finale (7/7/08) by 5% in Total Viewers (10.0 million vs. 9.5 million), 3% in Adults 18-49 (3.5/10 vs. 3.4/10) and by 7% in Adults 18-34 (3.2/11 vs. 3.0/10).

"Dating in the Dark" (10:02-11:00 p.m.)

Winning its 10 o'clock time period for the 2nd week in a row among Adults 18-34 (2.2/7) and Adults 18-49 (2.4/7), ABC's "Dating in the Dark" retained all of its week-earlier debut numbers to stand as the No. 1 new TV series of Summer 2009 with Total Viewers and Adults 18-49.

* "Dating in the Dark" qualified as the No. 2 TV program of the night for the 2nd consecutive week among Adults 18-34 (2.2/7), Women 18-34 (2.9/10) and Women 18-49 (3.2/10), behind only "The Bachelorette" season ender.

Tuesday

"The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

More than doubling its lead-in numbers, "The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose" won the 10 o'clock hour in Total Viewers (8.0 million) and across all key Adult demographics: Adults 18-34 (2.6/9), Adults 18-49 (2.8/8) and Adults 25-54 (3.0/8).

* "The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose" produced ABC's strongest summer numbers in the hour in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49 with entertainment programming in over 2 years, and the highest Adults 18-34 performance in over 4 years - since 5/29/07 and 6/7/05, respectively.

* "The Bachelorette: After the Final Rose" registered as the night's No. 1 TV show among Women 18-34 (3.8/12) and Women 18-49 (4.3/12), beating Tuesday night regulars including NBC's "America's Got Talent" and Fox's "Hell's Kitchen."

Wednesday

Increasing its Total Viewer count by 9% (5.1 million vs. 4.7 million), ABC drew a bigger audience this year than last for the 8th Wednesday in a row. In addition, the Network has been up or even on the night in Adults 18-49 (1.6/5) for 8 weeks running.

"Wipeout" (8:00-9:02 p.m.)

ABC's repeat airing of "Wipeout" took a strong second in the 8 o'clock hour to Fox's original "So You Think You Can Dance," beating out NBC's repeat "America's Got Talent" by 8% in Total Viewers (6.8 million vs. 6.3 million) and by a substantial 57% in Adults 18-49 (2.2/7 vs. 1.4/5).

* For the 10th straight week (every telecast this summer), the ABC unscripted series finished No. 1 in its time period in Men 18-49 (2.0/7). ABC's rebroadcast "Wipeout" also topped Fox's original "Dance" to win the hour in Men 25-54 (2.5/8) and placed as the highest-rated broadcast program with Teens 12-17 (1.5/7) and Kids 2-11 (2.3/9).

* "Wipeout" hit its highest-ever repeat numbers among Total Viewers (6.8 million) and across each of the key Adult demographics: AD 18-34 (1.8/7), AD18-49 (2.2/7-tie) and AD25-54 (2.5/8-tie).

"Primetime: Crime" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

ABC News' "Primetime: Crime" took second in the 10 o'clock hour with Women 18-49 (1.8/5) and Women 25-54 (2.2/6), beating NBC's "The Philanthropist."

Sunday

"America's Funniest Home Videos" (7:00-8:00 p.m.)

ABC's repeat "America's Funniest Home Videos" finished No. 1 among Adults 18-49 (1.3/5-tie) for the 2nd week in a row during Sunday's 7 o'clock hour.

"Defying Gravity" (9:00-11:00 p.m.)

On its 2-hour debut from 9:00-11:00 p.m., ABC's "Defying Gravity" beat out Part 2 of NBC's "The Storm" by 10% in Adults 18-49 (1.1/3 vs. 1.0/3).

* In its regularly-scheduled time period (10:00-11:00 p.m.), "Defying Gravity" produced ABC's best Total Viewer (3.7 million) and Adult 18-49 (1.1/3) numbers in 5 weeks - since 6/28/09. In fact it matched the Net's second-highest non-sports Adult 18-49 number in the hour this summer.

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 26% 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 (National Live+Same Day Program Ratings), week of 7/27/09, unless stated otherwise.