Primetime Ratings Report For the week of August 16, 2010 (Based on National Live + Same Day Program Ratings)

The Biggest Gainer Among the Major Nets Year to Year, ABC is Up over the Same Week Last Year for the 14th Consecutive Week

Net Airs 4 of the Week's Top 20 Most-Watched TV Shows Overall And Claims the No. 1 TV Series in Adults 18-49 with "Wipeout-TUES"

ABC Improves its Summer Results Year to Year by 21% in Viewers And by 27% in Adults 18-49, Posting its Strongest Summer in 5 Years

ABC's Monday Grows Year to Year for 3rd Straight Week and on 9 of the Last 10

ABC's "Bachelor Pad" Improves its Slot and is No. 1 Among Key Women Demos

"Dating in the Dark" Retains 100% of its Week-Ago Premiere In Adults 18-34, While Building on its Opener with Women 18-34

ABC Marks its Top Tuesday in 9 Weeks, Up Year to Year for the 6th Straight Week

Hitting Season Highs, ABC's "Wipeout" is Tuesday's No. 1 Show in Adults 18-49

ABC's "Shaq VS" Delivers Series-High with Young Adults, Up Over its Year-Ago Series Debut by 21% in Viewers and 18% in Adults 18-49

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

ABC's Repeat "Wipeout" Takes a Strong Second in its Slot to CBS' "Big Brother"

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

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

For the 7th Straight Week, "20/20" is the No. 1 Series in its Slot with Adults 18-49

ABC Wins Saturday in Viewers and Young Adults with "NASCAR" Coverage, Generating the Network's Biggest Audience on the Evening in Over 4 Months

On Sunday, "America's Funniest Home Videos" Marks the Series' Most-Watched Summer Telecast in 4 Years and Highest-Rated in 3 Years Among Adults 18-49

WEEK No. 48:

The biggest gainer among the major nets over the same week last year in both Total Viewers (+11% - 5.0 million vs. 4.5 million) and Adults 18-49 (+25% - 1.5/5 vs. 1.2/4), ABC built its young adult audience year to year for the 14th consecutive week. The Net also posted double-digit percentage increases week to week (w/o 8/9/10 = 4.3 million and 1.3/4) with viewers (+16%) and young adults (+15%), drawing its 2nd largest audience since June - since w/o 6/21/10.

· With just two weeks remaining in the 2010 summer frame (Memorial Day-Labor Day), ABC's primetime results have jumped year to year by 21% in Total Viewers (5.8 million vs. 4.8 million) and by 27% in Adults 18-49 (1.9/6 vs. 1.5/5). In viewers and young adults, ABC is generating its strongest summertime numbers in 5 years - since 2005. The Net is up by wide margins this summer in Adults 18-49 on 5 of 7 nights during the week: +22% on Monday, +73% on Tuesday, +87% on Thursday, +33% on Friday and +12% on Sunday. The Net ranks No. 1 with young adults this summer on Monday, Thursday and Sunday nights.

Rankings: ABC aired 4 of the Top 20 most-watched TV shows overall for the week: "Wipeout-TUES" - No. 4, "America's Funniest Home Videos - 8/22" - No. 14, "Wipeout-THURS" - No. 19 and "Rookie Blue" - No. 20. In addition, ABC's "Wipeout-TUES" stood as the week's No. 1 TV series among Adults 18-49. ABC aired the No. 1 newsmagazine for the week in Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 with "Primetime: What Would You Do?" on Tuesday. In fact among Adults 18-49, ABC News delivered TV's No. 1 newsmagazine for the 9th time in the last 10 weeks.

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.

Monday

ABC's Monday lineup of "Bachelor Pad" and "Dating in the Dark" ranked No. 1 on the night among the major networks in Adults 18-49 (1.8/5-tie).

· ABC improved on the same Monday last summer (8/17/09) by 38% in Adults 18-49 (1.8/5 vs. 1.3/4), up year to year for the 3rd straight Monday and for the 9th time on the last 10 weeks.

"Bachelor Pad" (8:00-10:01 p.m.)

"Bachelor Pad" led its 2-hour time period for the 2nd consecutive week among Women 18-49 (2.7/8) and Women 25-54 (3.2/8). The new summer series grew its young adult audience by 24% (1.7/6 to 2.1/6) from its first half-hour to its final-half hour.

· "Bachelor Pad" was up over the Net's year-ago performance (8/17/10) in the time period by 19% in Adults 18-49 (1.9/6 vs. 1.6/5).

"Dating in the Dark" (10:01-11:00 p.m.)

ABC's "Dating in the Dark" ranked No. 1 against its CBS and NBC competition in the hour Adults 18-49 (1.5/4) and Adults 18-34 (1.5/4), while leading the hour overall among Women 18-34 (2.1/7) and Women 18-49 (2.1/6). The ABC unscripted series retained 100% of its week-ago season opener in Adults 18-34, while building on its premiere by 5% in Women 18-34 (2.1/7 vs. 2.0/6).

· "Dating in the Dark" saw increases in the time period for ABC over the same night last year in Total Viewers (+12% - 3.7 million vs. 3.3 million) and Adults 18-49 (+67% - 1.5/4 vs. 0.9/3).

Tuesday

ABC generated its highest-rated Tuesday in 9 weeks (since 6/15/10 with the 2010 NBA Finals Game 6) among Adults 18-49 (2.2/7), registering its top non-sports performance on the night since June 1.

· Up year-to-year on the night for the 6th week in a row, ABC grew sharply over on the year-ago Tuesday (8/18/10) in Total Viewers (+33% - 6.1 million vs. 4.6 million) and Adults 18-49 (+57% - 2.2/7 vs. 1.4/4). The Net has been up year to year on Tuesday evening on 11 of 12 weeks this summer.

"Wipeout-TUES" (8:00-9:01 p.m.)

ABC's "Wipeout" won the 8 o'clock hour among Total Viewers (9.0 million) and Adults 18-49 (3.1/10), beating out its nearest competition by 94% with young adults (NBC - 1.6/5). Despite its early time period with lower overall TV usage levels, "Wipeout" finished as Tuesday's No. 1 TV show in the key young adult sales demo, outperforming NBC's 2-hour "America's Got Talent" (9:00 - 11:00 p. m.).

· Coming on the heels of its 4th season renewal announcement earlier in the week, "Wipeout" matched season-highs across all key Adults demographics (A18-34 - 2.5/9, A18-49 - 3.1/10 and A25-54 - 3.6/11), while drawing the season's second-largest viewer count. In fact "Wipeout" equaled its best Adults 18-34 performance in over 2 years and matched its best Adults 18-49 and Adults 25-54 numbers in over 1 year - since 7/29/08 and 5/27/09, respectively.

"Shaq VS" (9:01-10:01 p.m.)

In the 9 o'clock hour, ABC's "Shaq VS" jumped to a series high with young adults, surging week to week by 33% in Total Viewers (4.8 million vs. 3.6 million) and by 36% in Adults 18-49 (1.9/6 vs. 1.4/4).

· The ABC sophomore unscripted series was up over its performance in the hour on the same night last summer, on its series debut, gaining 14% in Total Viewers and 12% in Adults 18-49 (4.2 million and 1.7/5).

"Primetime: What Would You Do?" (10:01-11:00 p.m.)

In the 10 p.m. hour, ABC's repeat airing of "Primetime: What Would You Do?" took second place against its NBC (original "America's Got Talent") and CBS (encore "The Good Wife") competition among Adults 18-49, outdelivering CBS' "The Good Wife" by 70% (1.7/5 vs. 1.0/3).

· The ABC newsmagazine produced the Net's 2nd highest non-sports numbers in the time period this summer among Adults 18-49 (1.7/5) and Adults 25-54 (2.0/5).

Thursday

Thursday's biggest gainer among the major nets this summer, ABC saw its numbers shoot up over the same night last summer (8/20/09) in Total Viewers (+40% - 5.6 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" finished a strong second to CBS' original "Big Brother" in Total Viewers (6.4 million), Adults 25-54, Women 18-49 and Kids 2-11.

"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" grew its overall audience week to week by 7% and equaled 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 (+100% - 1.6/5 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 81% in Total Viewers (3.8 million vs. 2.1 million) and by 83% in Adults 18-49 (1.1/3 vs. 0.6/2) over its performance last summer.

Friday

"Primetime: What Would You Do?" (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

A repeat ABC News' "Primetime: What Would You Do?" once again beat out the first hour of NBC's original "Dateline" by double-digit percentages, leading the newsmagazine race by 20% in Adults 18-49 (1.2/4 vs. 1.0/3) and by 15% among Adults 25-54 (1.5/5 vs. 1.3/4).

"20/20" (10:00-11:00 p.m.)

ABC News' "20/20" was the top-rated regular program the final hour of Friday's prime in Adults 18-49 (1.4/5) and Adults 25-54 (1.8/6-tie), beating the second hour of NBC's competing newsmagazine, "Dateline," by 8% and 20%, respectively (1.2/4 and 1.5/5, respectively). In fact, the ABC newsmagazine finished as the No. 1 regular show in its slot with Adults 18-49 for the 7th consecutive week and 6 of the last 7 weeks among Adults 25-54.

Saturday

ABC's broadcast of "NASCAR Sprint Cup Series from Bristol" drew the Net's largest audience (6.0 million) on the night in over 4 months and highest Adults 18-49 number (1.8/7) in over 3 months - since 4/3/10 and 5/8/10, respectively. In addition, ABC won the night in viewers and young adults.

Sunday

ABC turned in its best non-sports Sunday of the summer in Total Viewers (5.1 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.3/4-tie).

"America's Funniest Home Videos" (8:00-9:00 p.m.)

Opposite "NFL Pre-Season Football" on NBC in the hour, a rebroadcast of ABC's "America's Funniest Home Videos" at 8:00 p.m. drew the series' largest summer audience (7.0 million) in over 4 years and best Adults 18-49 performance (1.8/5) in 3 years - since 8/20/06 and 8/26/07, respectively.

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" (9:00-10:00 p.m.)

At 9:00 p.m., ABC's repeat "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" posted ABC's strongest performance in the hour in Total Viewers (4.8 million) and Adults 18-49 (1.2/3) in over 2 months - since 6/20/10. In fact, the unscripted series delivered the Net's second-best non-sports performance in the hour of the summer.

Source: The Nielsen Company (National Live+Same Day Program Ratings), week of 8/16/10, unless stated otherwise. Summer = 5/31-8/22/10 vs. 5/25-8/23/09.