L+7 Ratings: TV Playback Boosts ABC's Competitive Rankings

Live + 7 Day ratings for the week of 4/6/15 (Week #29):

Please note: ABC's Castle, Modern Family and Grey's Anatomy in its regular 8pm slot were repeats this week, while Scandal was pre-empted for a special 9pm telecast of Grey's.

In the final Live + 7 Day ratings, ABC's The Goldbergs (3.0 rating) and black-ish (2.9) emerged as the week's #2 and #3 comedies among Adults 18-49, respectively, ahead of CBS' The Odd Couple (2.6) and Mom (2.5).

Growing to a 2.6 rating in L+7, ABC's S.H.I.E.L.D. moved ahead of CBS' NCIS: New Orleans (2.4 rating) in Tuesday's 9 o'clock hour to lead by 2-tenths of a rating point among Adults 18-49. In the L+SD ratings, S.H.I.E.L.D. was 2-tenths behind the CBS drama among young adults.

ABC's Secrets and Lies grew to a 2.2 L+7 rating with Adults 18-49, leapfrogging over NBC's A.D. (2.1) and Fox's Last Man on Earth (2.1) to rank as the #1 broadcast program in Sunday's 9 o'clock hour. In the L+SD ratings, Secrets and Lies placed #3 in the hour.

Despite a number of the Net's programs being in repeats or pre-empted during the week, ABC still claimed 4 of the Top 10 biggest TV playback gainers on the broadcast networks among Adults 18-49: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+1.1 rating points) and Once Upon a Time (+1.1) tied for #3, while black-ish (+1.0) and The Goldbergs (+1.0) tied at #8.

On a percentage basis, ABC also had 4 of the week's 10 strongest broadcast gainers with young adults: Forever (+89%) and Revenge (+89%) tied for #4, Nashville (+82%) - #7 and S.H.I.E.L.D. (+73%) - #10.

Soaring +82% over its L+SD rating among Adults 18-49 (from a 1.1 to a 2.0 in L+7), Nashville scored a playback season high. In addition, Shark Tank matched its largest lift of the season, growing +47% from L+SD to L+7 (1.5 to 2.0).

Growing to a 2.5 among Adults 18-49 in the L+7 numbers, Dancing with Stars ended even with prior week, after being off 1-tenth of a rating point week to week in L+SD.

Season-to-Date TV Playback (9/22/14-4/12/15):

Based on L+7 ratings through 29 weeks of the 2014-15 season, ABC is #1 in Nielsen's non-sports Adult 18-49 averages (2.2 rating-tied with CBS), leading by double digits over NBC (+10% - 2.0) and Fox (+16% - 1.9). Growing to a 2.2 L+7 rating among Adults 18-49 in the non-sports numbers, ABC is even year to year (2.2 for 9/23/13-4/13/14), while CBS (-8%), NBC (-13%) and Fox (-5%) are each declining.

Based on TV playback data for the 2014-15 season, ABC claims 5 of the Top 10 biggest gainers among Adults 18-49 on the broadcast networks (the most for any network): Modern Family (+2.2 rating points) - #2, How To Get Away with Murder (+2.0) - #4, Scandal (+1.6) - #6, Grey's Anatomy (+1.5) - #8 and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+1.3) - #10.

Among Adults 18-49 in the L+7 ratings, ABC has the Top 2 dramas on Thursday with HTGAWM (5.0 rating) and Scandal (4.6), the #1 show on Friday with Shark Tank (2.6) and the #1 broadcast series on Sunday with Once Upon a Time (3.5).

Several of ABC's returning series are seeing bigger percentage gains among Adults 18-49 from L+SD to L+7 this year than last: The Bachelor (+25% vs. +24%), Castle (+69% vs. +60%), DWTS (+20% vs. +19%), Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (+81% vs. +64%), The Middle (+35% vs. +29%), Modern Family (+67% vs. +56%), Resurrection (+67% vs. +48%), Revenge (+82% vs. +63%) and Shark Tank (+37% vs. +30%).

Source: The Nielsen Company, as dated. Based on regular, original telecasts only. Season-to-Date DVR playback ranker includes programs with 2 or more telecasts.

L+7 Ratings: TV Playback Boosts ABC's Competitive Rankings/Goldbergs and black-ish Finish as the #2 and #3 Comedies/S.H.I.E.L.D. Moves Ahead of NCIS: NO/Secrets and Lies Jumps Over A.D. and Last Man on Earth