• by Wayne Friedman , October 2, 2017

Since the first week in July, Kantar Media says ABC has run more promo time on its airwaves for all its fall shows than other networks -- almost double its nearest competitor.

From July 3 through September 24, ABC’s promo time totaled 34.4 hours. CBS was at 17.8 hours, followed by NBC at 14.3 hours and Fox with 7.6 hours. These results exclude sports programming.  

For the 2016-2017 TV season, ABC was in third place among all Nielsen viewers -- at 6.2 million -- and was fourth among 18-49 viewers with an average Nielsen 1.6 rating.

ABC has also run the most prime-time spots for all its fall shows, at 4,779, followed by CBS at 4,255, NBC with 2,948, and Fox at 1,459. ABC earned the top two spots for of its new series, devoting 1,496 spots for “The Good Doctor” and 1,174 for “The Mayor.”  TV networks typically spend the most time promoting new shows in the fall.

CBS was next with two new shows: 850 spots for “Seal Team” and 830 spots for “Young Sheldon” -- a prequel of “The Big Bang Theory.”

NBC allotted 777 spots for “The Brave.” The sixth-most promoted spots went to CBS’ “Wisdom of the Crowd,” 737. NBC had 694 spots for “Will & Grace" and for new NBC drama “Law & Order: True Crime,” 607. ABC aired 600 spots for “Kevin Probably Saves The World.”

The big four networks aired more than 13,400 commercials, totaling nearly 75 hours of ad time, to promote the premiere telecasts of new and returning prime-time series.