ABC, CBS Tops With Affluent Viewers

ABC says based on the first week of the broadcast prime-time season, it currently holds the coveted spot of being No. 1 with upscale viewers.

ABC results for adults 18-49 with incomes of $100,000 or more -- taking out sports programming -- is a 3.2 rating. Fox and CBS tied for second place with a 2.9 number. For many TV advertisers, upscale viewers can be "light" TV viewers, and thus can be more valuable for many TV prime-time advertisers.

CBS had the No. 1 show among upscale viewers -- this from the high-flying re-boot of "Two and a Half Men", which sits at a 12.0 number. ABC had the second-best-rated show in this category -- "Modern Family" -- with a 9.8 rating for this demographic.

ABC says it had five of the top 15 shows, which included a special "Modern Family" episode hitting a 10.4 rating; and "Pan Am," "Dancing with the Stars" and "Grey's Anatomy" -- each with a 4.4 upscale rating, tied for 13th place.

CBS also did well, taking six of the top 11 positions. In addition to "Men", "2 Broke Girls" earned a 7.6 rating; "How I Met Your Mother" took a 6.0 rating; a special "Big Bang Theory" earned a 5.8 rating; and a regular airing of "Theory" grabbed a 5.6, while another episode of "Mother" scored a 5.4.

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Fox had three of the top 15 spots: "Glee" with a 6.2 rating; "New Girl" at a 6.1 rating; and "X Factor" (Wednesday edition) with 4.8.

NBC had two shows -- "The Office" at a 6.6 rating and "Whitney" at 4.4.

Overall, for the first week of the season, Fox won its first-ever premiere week among the all 18-49 viewers with a 3.4/9. CBS was right behind with a 3.1/8; farther down was ABC at a 2.8/8; then came NBC, at a 2.6/7.

1 comment about "ABC, CBS Tops With Affluent Viewers".
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  1. Sunil Soman from NCM Media Networks, September 29, 2011 at 12:04 p.m.

    Affluents are indeed light TV viewers, but they are also heavy moviegoers, handily outpacing the US pop in terms of 2 or more visits to the theater per month based on the most recent data from MRI. In terms of delivery, Nielsen reports that the average month (the typical cinema schedule) in the first half of 2011 delivered a 41 Rating on 1849 with HHI $100K+, an average over 10 points per week.

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