Quick Take for Thursday, August 19, 2010 (Fast Affiliate Live + Same Day Ratings)

Posting Sharp Year-to-Year Gains, ABC is Up for the 11th Consecutive Thursday

"Wipeout" Generates its Most-Watched Repeat Airing in its Thursday Slot

Finishing as the Most-Watched TV Show in its Hour for the 3rd time in 4 Weeks, ABC's "Rookie Blue" Builds its Numbers Despite Facing Fox's NFL Covereage

ABC News' "Nighlineprime" Opens with Big Year-to-Year Time Period Improvement

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

Thursday's biggest gainer among the major nets this summer, ABC's numbers shot up over the same night last summer (8/20/09) in Total Viewers (+43% - 5.7 million vs. 4.0 million) and Adults 18-49 (+40% - 1.5/5 vs. 0.9/3). The Network tallied its 11th straight Thursday of year-to-year primetime improvement.

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

In the 8 o'clock hour, ABC's "Wipeout-THURS" generated its most-watched-ever (6.6 million) repeat telecast in the time period and finished a strong second to CBS' original "Big Brother."

"Rookie Blue" (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

Outdrawing Fox's pre-season NFL Game (New England-Atlanta), ABC's "Rookie Blue" (6.4 million) stood as the most-watched TV show in its time period for the 3rd time in 4 weeks.

· Despite facing NFL competition, "Rookie Blue" was up week to week in both Total Viewers (+7% - 6.4 million vs. 6.0 million) and Adults 18-49 (+6% - 1.7/5 vs. 1.6/5). In addition, the new ABC drama tied its 2nd highest-ever Adult 18-34 number.

· "Rookie Blue" continued to generate impressive year-to-year growth for ABC in the hour, doubling Net's numbers over the year-ago night in viewers (+100% - 6.4 million vs. 3.2 million) and young adults (+113% - 1.7/5 vs. 0.8/3).

"Nightlineprime: Secrets of Your Mind - Why We Do What We Do" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

ABC News' "Nightlineprime: Secrets of Your Mind" debuted with impressive year-to-year gains in Thursday's 10 o'clock hour. Versus the year-ago night, "Nightlineprime" boosted the time period for ABC by 95% in Total Viewers (4.1 million vs. 2.1 million) and by 83% in Adults 18-49 (1.1/4 vs. 0.6/2) over its performance last 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 37% currently, from 32% at the same point in 2009. 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: The Nielsen Company (Fast Affiliate, Live + Same Day Ratings), 8/19/10.