ABC Posts Hits 8-Week Highs on Thursday

Some early info on ABC's Thursday, ahead of the regular press release.

ABC ran a strong second on Thursday in Total Viewers and Adults 18-49, while finishing #1 on the night in Adults 18-34 and across all key Women (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54). It was the Net's 9th straight Thursday victory in Women 18-34 and Women 18-49.

· In Total Viewers and Adults 18-49 (tie), ABC hit its top numbers on the night since season-premiere Thursday 8 weeks ago (on 9/23/10).

ABC's special annual rebroadcast of Charlie Brown Thanksgiving produced season-highs for the Net in the 8 o'clock hour among viewers and young adults (tie), drawing its top non-sports in-season results in the slot in 1 year - since 11/19/09.

· Charlie Brown Thanksgiving was up year to year by nearly 1.0 million viewers and by 10% in Adults 18-49 (on 11/26/09).

ABC's Grey's Anatomy won Thursday's 9 o'clock hour in Adults 18-49, registering as the # 1 series in the time period for the 9th consecutive week. In its time period, Grey's outperformed second-place NBC's comedies (The Office/Outsourced) by +34% , third-place CBS' CSI by +39% and fourth-place Fox's Fringe by +126%. In addition, Grey's finished as the Thursday's #1 TV show in the key young adult sales demo (tie).

· Growing 8% week to week in Adults 18-49, Grey's Anatomy equaled its best performance in 5 weeks - since 10/14/10.

In the 10pm hour, ABC's Private Practice ran neck-and-neck for the lead in Adults 18-49 and finished #1 in its time-slot in Adults 18-34 for the 3rd week in a row, beating out CBS' The Mentalist by 25%. The ABC drama also won the hour across all key Women demographics (W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).